Categories
SEO SMM

What is SEO ?

What is SEO?

SEO in simple terms means Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of driving targeted audiences to the website. SEO is technically a way to assist search engines to get discovered and rank higher than millions of other websites in competition.

It is the biggest dream of every business to rank first on search engines. SEO marketing is important as major searches happen on Google. Let us understand how search engine optimization works to rank your content or website.

The two important paths of SEO

If you ask what are the core elements of Search Engine Optimization, it becomes essential to deeply understand, on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is more focused on content improvement for better rankings. It is a process to incorporate content targeted to specific keywords into your website and relevant pages. High-quality content is the key for on-page SEO but make sure titles are keyword-rich and articles use metatags, URLs, and important links among other important SEO factors.

Off-Page SEO

Off-Page SEO is an optimization that happens off any website. This is done by earning backlinks or by gaining mentions on other websites. Off-page SEO can be gained by creating content that is easy to share. This optimization is crucial for improving the relevance, trustworthiness, and authority of any website.

SEO strategies: A detailed view

There are different types of SEO strategies like white hat, black hat, technical, international, local, eCommerce, and content SEO that helps in quick ranking. Some of these SEO strategies are quite sneaky so, it is important to understand the good and bad aspects.

Black hat SEO is not cheerful

Black hat SEO is associated with keyword stuffing and link scraping for ranking quickly. It exploits Google’s search engine algorithm for instant results. Black is dark in SEO, it might work in the short-term. It is spammy and Google might penalize or blacklist your website, so beware of the black hat SEO strategy and avoid it.

What comes under black hat SEO?

Black hat SEO is a process against search engine guidelines and here are the few things that need to be avoided-

Duplication and keyword stuffing

Who likes duplication? Even Google doesn’t like it. The repeated duplicate keyword in text, again and again, blacklists a website quickly if stuffing is done in irrelevant places. Invisible text is also the part of black hat SEO where a lot of keywords are stuffed in the end of the article and it is hidden by the same background color. 

Redirecting and cloaking

Redirecting in black hat SEO means sending someone to a different URL from the one which was actually clicked. Cloaking on the other hand involves showing one piece of content to users and a different piece to search engines. Another wrong way of redirecting is by buying keyword-rich domains to attract all traffic to a single website.

Poor linking 

Relevant content links will be beneficial for gaining better traffic. It is not a good practice to purchase a package of promising links in 24 hours to build links and get traffic. Poor internal linking makes it difficult to get backlinks and makes it difficult for search engines to rate the web pages.

White hat SEO seems peaceful

White hat SEO practice is a more pure form of SEO in-line with major search engines and their terms and conditions. White hat SEO is best to build a successful website and it has the quality to improve search engine ranking on the  Search Engine Results Page (SERPS).

What comes under white hat SEO?

Wearing a white hat for SEO practices looks ethical for websites and businesses. Follow the steps below and make your SEO white hat.

Quality content and services

It is important to create high-quality content that meets the visitor’s needs. This content should also help them to solve their problem areas. It is easy with SEO keyword research tools to discover the relevant and popular keywords for website optimization. Keywords that gel well in better content, articles, and videos will fulfill the needs of the end user.

Descriptive meta tags

If you are unaware of meta tags, they are snippets of the text describing a page’s content.  Well, this won’t appear on the page but in the page’s source code.  Use descriptive meta-tags and keyword-rich meta-descriptions for helping users and search engines identify your content. A meta description can be described as a HTML element summarizing contents on a webpage and is beneficial for users and search engines.

Easy to navigate

Easy to navigate websites perform better in search results. Organize the information architecture of any website tactfully for easy navigation.

Gray Hat SEO is bleak

This SEO practice is riskier and neither belongs to a white hat or black hat strategy. According to SEO consultant John Andrews, “ Gray hat SEO is the  practice of tactics/techniques which remain ill-defined by published material coming out of Google, and for which reasonable people could disagree on how the tactics support or contrast with the spirit of Google’s published guidelines.” 

What comes under Gray hat SEO?

A common Gray hat SEO strategy is using expired domains. Buying or trading links, using private blog networks, and building micro-websites and blogs are also some of the other Gray hat SEO methods. When it comes to social media accounts, some businesses create multiple social media accounts to artificially inflate sharing and linking of websites. Google reviews play a very important role when it comes to ranking and it works well in another form of SEO called local SEO. It is a Gray Hat SEO strategy to trick the Google algorithm and pay for positive reviews. Many companies think it is a smart way to submit websites to web directories to get a free backlink. This is good when done in small numbers but overusing this strategy to get hundreds of links is manipulating the Gray hat SEO strategy. It is crucial to understand how Gray hat SEO is done sneakily by many businesses when it comes to playing with content, hidden keywords, and cloaking. 

Gray Hat Content SEO

One of the common content formats used for Gray Hat SEO is spinning. The content is usually lifted from other websites and reworded to avoid plagiarism. Spinning content can penalize your website and is similar to duplicating content. Duplicating is copying and pasting other website content or creating multiple copies of the same content for ranking high with targeted keywords. Even automation of content is a Gray Hat strategy where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used to create content without human involvement. This automation also works with scraping content from other websites and combining it into one page on the main website. Duplication, automation, and lifting content sound very unethical aren’t they?

Hide and Seek with keywords

We have mentioned that using hidden text is a common black hat SEO strategy but in Gray Hat SEO it is again applicable with tricky settings like hiding keywords and setting font size to even zero. This technique will hide keywords from the user but allow the search engine to crawl but this is again a violation of Google Webmaster guidelines.

Deceptive cloaking

Cloaking is a deceptive SEO technique where one set of content or URLs is presented to human users and the other set goes to the search engines. It is done to get desired results on search engines to get desired rankings for targeted keywords. It is eventually giving different results to users than what they expect.

What are the other types of SEO?

The SEO story is not ending with black, white, and gray SEO. Other forms of SEO also play an important role and let us check what they are.

Technical SEO Crawls

Technical SEO is a process where Google bots crawl, interpret, and index website pages. It is a technique that also involves creating an extensive XML sitemap and making a website mobile-friendly. XML sitemap in simple terms can be described as a file that lists a website’s essential pages. This makes sure that Google can find and crawl all the pages. 

International SEO is cultural

The target market’s culture plays an important role in International SEO. Improving the website’s organic traffic with the help of different languages and areas is the main technique. The right format of dates and times based on the place is important to be listed. This type of SEO is more focused on creating a better online experience for the target audience.

Local SEO

Local SEO is important for local search engine visibility and helps businesses reach local audiences. It analyzes the behavior of the audience with their search results. Local SEO also involves local map listing to increase traffic to the website.

Ecommerce SEO

This SEO practice is best to rank online store websites. It helps in boosting product searches and services.  If done correctly this helps in optimizing the website, bringing traffic, and increasing better search volumes.

Content SEO

Content SEO is best for creating unique content. Content can be in any form like writing, graphics, or videos. When it comes to content SEO copywriting, website structure and keyword strategy need to strike the right balance. It is important to keep track of how the content is performing and the best way is to make necessary changes to broaden the reach of the website.

3rd Wave Media:  SEO agency in Mumbai

Search Engine Optimization is a system used to leverage more traffic on any website and gain a higher position in search results pages. SEO-optimized business wins a great number of visitors and can generate better optimum leads, feedback, and sales.  It is important to focus on building an online presence in this digital world and if you are someone looking out for SEO services in Mumbai, 3rd Wave media can fulfill all the SEO requirements. Check out with us for more making your website SEO friendly.

Categories
SMM

What is social media marketing?

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing (SMM) is a digitally smart form of internet marketing. It uses the power of social media networks to achieve marketing and branding goals. It is used to build brands, develop a connection with the audience, increase sales, and drive website traffic.

 

Fundamentals of social media marketing 

 

What is social media marketing strategy? This question sounds daunting if you are unaware of social media marketing trends. Social media marketing revolves around two things, organic reach and paid advertising.

 

Social media marketing through organic and paid ads 

 

The organic goals can be reached by certain steps like maintaining and optimizing the social media profiles followed by posting consistently. Every social media format is different and creating attractive and relevant content is the key to social media marketing. Attract your audience with picture posts, stories, videos, and reels. Go live with perfect branding topics relevant to your product and connect to the hearts of your target audience. 

 

Social media is about listening and engagement. It is very important for a brand to follow its competitors and engage with its followers. A brand must interact with its customers and influencers to build a community. Don’t forget to respond to comments, shares and likes gained. 

 

Why choose paid social media advertising?

 

Paid social media advertising is also known as paid social. Paid media can be anything that is creative in the form of images or videos. It is paid placements that appear in large volume in front of the target audience. Paid media advertising helps in promoting business with target keywords specific to the target audience’s interests and behaviors. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube are very influential in targeting new audiences with your unique content formats or specially designed advertisements.

 

Social media planning and publishing

 

Planning starts with action and social media marketing requires right planning and popular platforms for publishing. There are three key points that need to be considered while planning and here we go one by one:

 

Choose wise social media platform

 

Every social media marketing platform has different target audiences and it will be a great idea to use LinkedIn for status updates, and Facebook for album and story posts. Instagram these days come with reel charms so creating an Instagram story, reels, image specific posts will be a great idea. If you love making long and short-form videos, YouTube is best. Twitter is more about energized discussions and staying updated with brand news. All platforms look promising but stay with the platforms that one is actively using for social media interactions.

 

Social media marketing: Be goal-oriented

 

Scheduling fixed goals like creating unique content formats, posting with consistency, and adding value-added information will prove fruitful in social media marketing. The main objective should be gaining better insights and more followers on your post.

 

Social media marketing analytics tools

Social media marketing is more powerful with analytics tools available on each social media platform. Almost all social media platforms offer some basic information about how a specific social media marketing campaign is performing. The goal is to see if it is reaching the right people and how it performed month to month. An analytical study also helps one filter positive and negative comments. It is important to understand what posts get more engagement, do they attract more followers, and scale up with the algorithms. Fix what is not working for you and improvise what has already worked for you.

Successful social media marketing strategies

Every business is different, and so are the marketing strategies. Social media marketing starts with knowing your audience. It is important to know about your target audience’s favorite social media platforms, their content taste, and likings. Always check who they really follow. Below are three important steps for successful social media marketing: 

Building a brand with powerful content

A structured content strategy with regularity and value-added information will help in building brand identity. It is important to define what message needs to be conveyed to the target audience. 

Post with consistency on social media platforms

Social media is a vast platform and it looks tempting to sail in all boats of popular networks. It is important to post regularly to get top engagements and keep up with the current business trends.

Social media content creation process 

The art of social media content creation comes with brainstorming content ideas that resonate with your audience. It is important to keep the content engaging with informative ideas relevant to your brand. Avoid something that is difficult to read. Creating content for social media is a more creative approach to strengthening your presence in different popular platforms. Good content in trending format can give you different types of audiences. Right planning, research, and content with creativity can turn beneficial for your business.

What are the goals of social media marketing?

Social media is a cost-effective way for marketing. The organic method is free but businesses must try paid advertising to expand their reach.  It is easy to fix a budget on social media sites. The real factor is social media marketing in both ways can allow you to reach some great goals as below:

Always sound like a human on social media platforms

Social media is getting more human these days with better engagement and interactions. It is important to build trust by actively participating in social media marketing spaces like polls, surveys, Facebook group interactions, liking and sharing others’ content etc.  Sound like a human to make your content look appealing to the audience.

Focus on getting traffic to your website through social media

Social media posts these days allow links and it will be a good idea to post links about your social media networks in different forms of your content. The clicks on the links can drive traffic to your website.

Builds better brand awareness

Social media is best for building brand awareness with visually pleasing content. Every social media platform has vast audiences and improving brand awareness will gain better results for your campaign.

Creates a happy relationship

It is often said that the virtual world looks more beautiful than the real world but social media is the best place to develop good relationships with better communication, networking, holding discussions, and connecting directly with individuals. 

Social media generate leads

Social media marketing helps in generating leads on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. The direct messaging feature, call-to-action buttons, and shops allow direct communication and sales.

Is social media marketing (SMM) always beneficial?

The answer is partially “yes.” Social media marketing allows customer relationship management to track purchases and product referrals. The sticky content made for marketing reasons is easily amplified through the sharing feature. The analytical tools help track, which helps to understand impressions, reach, clicks, likes, and shares.

SMM campaigns are beneficial for immediate post-reach to the target audience. Beware of creating false content and keep an eye on toxic viral content that can harm your brand presence. Everything comes with pros and cons, and so is social media. Social media platforms are changing on a daily basis. The bottom line is to use SMM to increase sales and drive traffic to your website.

 

Social media marketing agency in Mumbai: 3rd Wave Media

Social media marketing is growing, and people are accessing different platforms through computers or smartphones. Influencer marketing is growing crazily and every day a new creator is born. Social media marketing is rising with audiences craving more information and entertainment on these networks. If you are looking for a social media marketing agency in Mumbai, 3rd Wave Media can set your social media calendar, run paid online campaigns, and drive more traffic. We can build your brand through effective communication, connection, and value-added content. We can help you with the best content management and other social media competencies to reach your targeted goal.