What is Google Panda updates?

Google panda updates are introduced by Google search engine in their algorithm in order to eliminate low quality sites and content spam that are mainly concerned with the LOW QUALITY CONTENT.

The first panda update that happened in February 2011 literally shocked the seo world and webmasters because of the drastic changes that happened in the SERPS. Google replied on those updates that they are strictly working for the betterment of the search results for the better user experience.

Though there is an improvement in the quality of the sites that are showing in the search, there is a serious criticism that is still going on regarding the credibility of the sites that Google prefers after the update.

Many SEO sites andwebmasters clearly pointed out the flaws that even existed after the update but computer engineers from Google like Matt Cutts promised that those sites which are wrongly penalized for the concerned panda update will be rectified and corrected in the coming updates.

Why actually Google named this as “panda” update and the story behind this is that the concept of the content spam correcting technique is proposed by an Indian computer engineer (Google search team) and his name is Panda and that is how his name is awarded to the update.

History of the Google Panda Algorithm Updates:

• February 23, 2011: Panda 1
• April 11, 2011: Panda 2 (Ref. 2.0)
• May 9, 2011: Panda 3 (Ref. 2.1)
• June 21, 2011: Panda 4 (Ref. 2.2)
• July 23, 2011: Panda 5 (Ref. 2.3)
• August 12, 2011: Panda 6 (Ref 2.4)
• September 28, 2011: Panda 7 (Ref 2.5)
• October 5, 2011: Panda 8 - Flux
• November 18, 2011: Panda 9 (Ref. 3.1)
• January 18, 2012: Panda 10 (Ref. 3.2)
• February 27, 2012: Panda 11 (Ref. 3.3)
• March 23, 2012: Panda 12 (Ref. 3.4)
• April 19, 2012: Panda 13 (Ref. 3.5)
• April 27, 2012: Panda 14 (Ref. 3.6)
• June 8, 2012: Panda 15 (Ref. 3.7)
• June 25, 2012: Panda 16 (Ref. 3.8)
• July 24, 2012: Panda 17 (Ref. 3.9)
• August 20, 2012: Panda 18 (Ref. 3.9.1)
• September 18, 2012: Panda 19 (Ref. 3.9.2)
• September 27, 2012: Panda Update 20
• November 5, 2012: Panda 21
• November 21, 2012: Panda 22
• December 21, 2012: Panda 23
• January 22, 2013: Panda 24
• March 14, 2013: Panda 25
• June 28, 2013: Panda 26
• May 20, 2014: Panda 4.0
• September 23, 2014: Panda 4.1

What is Digital Marketing and why it matters?

What is Digital Marketing?

In simplistic terms, digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. Digital marketing differs from traditional marketing in that it involves the use of channels and methods that enable an organization to analyze marketing campaigns and understand what is working and what isn’t – typically in real time.

Digital marketers monitor things like what is being viewed, how often and for how long, sales conversions, what content works and doesn’t work, etc. While the Internet is, perhaps, the channel most closely associated with digital marketing, others include wireless text messaging, mobile instant messaging, mobile apps, podcasts, electronic billboards, digital television and radio channels, etc.

Why Digital Marketing Is Important?

Digital media is so pervasive that consumers have access to information any time and any place they want it. Gone are the days when the messages people got about your products or services came from you and consisted of only what you wanted them to know. Digital media is an ever-growing source of entertainment, news, shopping and social interaction, and consumers are now exposed not just to what your company says about your brand, but what the media, friends, relatives, peers, etc., are saying as well. And they are more likely to believe them than you. People want brands they can trust, companies that know them, communications that are personalized and relevant, and offers tailored to their needs and preferences.

5 Simple Digital Marketing Strategies That Can Help Your Business Grow:-

Digital marketing is essential in today's world. With both competitors and potential customers constantly online, digital marketing is the only way to stay ahead. When you're a small business owner the online world can seem intimidating. Here is a list of five simple digital marketing strategies that any business owner can implement to help their business grow.

1. Setting a Goal: You're looking for ways to help your small business grow. You might want more customers, more recognition or maybe you're looking to get ahead of the competition. Whatever the case may be, starting with a solid goal in mind greatly increases your chances of success. Digital marketing is a great way for small businesses to prosper, but going into the process blindly can leave you with a jumbled mess. A lot of strategy and precision goes into digital marketing and having a goal helps you know what to focus on.

2. Creating a Marketing Funnel: The most successful businesses have an effective marketing funnel in place. A marketing funnel is when you map out a customer's journey from when a customer is a complete stranger to when they become a lead, and then put certain strategies in place that will encourage them to move through this funnel. Things like lead magnets, calls to action, opt-ins and offers are all effective pieces of a funnel. You can think of a marketing funnel in four parts: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action.

Awareness: The potential customer is aware of your product or service. They're still a stranger, but they've come to your website for a reason. They're looking for something they need. At this stage you want to attract the customer by showing them that you have something they're looking for. Use a lead magnet or call-to-action to give the customer a valuable resource related to your product or service (i.e: what they need) in exchange for more information about them like their email address, phone number, profession and current needs. Find out who they are and why they came to your website.

Interest: They are actively expressing interest in a certain type of your products or services. At this point you've given them some information and they're interested in what you have to say or the services you provide. You've used your lead magnet or CTA in stage one to gather more information about them. At this stage it's a good idea to supply them with further information that is more tailored to their specific needs. Showing them that you not only took the time to get to know them, but also have something that's specific to their needs will show that you're attentive to and care about your customer's wants and needs.

Desire: They've taken an interest in a specific product or service. Now that you've supplied them with information specific to what they're looking for, they've found a product or service you provide that might be a good fit for them. Invite them to schedule a consultation using an email or a call-to-action. At this stage you want to tell them more about the product or service they're interested in. Show them why they need it and exactly how it will benefit them.

Action: Taking the next step towards purchasing. This is when you're able to turn your potential customer into a lead. You've given them valuable information, shown them you pay attention to your customer's needs, and shown them that you have something they need that will benefit them. All that's left is discussing things like price, payment and other aspects of your product or service that are relevant to a buyer.

Having an effective marketing funnel won't just get you more leads; it can also help you turn leads into repeat buyers. If the customer has a good experience they might return to purchase from you again or even tell others they know about your business. The elements of a marketing funnel can seem like a lot to put together, but they're simple concepts when broken down. You'll see that numbers 3,4 and 5 help to break down and explain the different aspects of having a marketing funnel in place on your site and how to put together some of the most important pieces of it.

3. Developing a call-to-action: We talked about using a call-to-action in the second step as a part of your marketing funnel, but what is a call-to-action exactly? A call-to-action (CTA) is an image or text that prompts visitors to take action, such as subscribe to a newsletter, view a webinar or request a product demo. CTAs should direct people to landing pages, where you can collect visitors' contact information in exchange for a valuable marketing offer. In that sense, an effective CTA results in more leads and conversions for your website. This path, from a click on a CTA to a landing page, illustrates the much desired process of lead generation. In order to increase visitor-to-lead conversion opportunities, you need to create a lot of calls-to-action, distribute them across your web presence and optimize them. A good CTA should be attention grabbing and help lead a potential customer further into your marketing funnel.

4. Creating an Effective Lead Magnet: A lead magnet can be used alone or along with a CTA.

This will also be used either within your marketing funnel or as a way to drive potential customers into your funnel. Supply them with something relevant to your product or service that they want. Use your offers as a way to gather more information about a potential buyer while driving them further into your funnel at the same time. This brings them closer to becoming an actual quality lead who will spend money on your product or service. The idea behind a lead magnet is to trade information. You supply something like a free download of a white paper, but in order to complete the download the individual has to fill out a form that will provide you with more information about them. You'll use the information you gather to interact with them more as they progress through your funnel.

5. Driving Traffic: In order for there to be people to drive into your marketing funnel, there first has to be traffic on your website. There a variety of ways you can drive traffic to your website. Here are a few of the ones I recommend:-

Quality Content: Use content such as blog posts, press releases and articles on authority websites. Insert links to various places on your website within this content to build your brand name through exposure and drive traffic to your website.

Keyword Strategy: Inserting related keywords into content will help your content and website show up in more search results, this leads to higher volumes of web traffic.

Website Optimization: Ensuring that your website is optimized and functioning at its best is essential. People don't want to visit a website that doesn't work properly.

Social Media: Use engaging social media posts to attract more traffic to your site. Using pictures, video, and other relevant media will help your posts get more engagement.

Try these simple digital marketing strategies out on your website and see for yourself how much of a difference they can make. If you want your business to grow, digital marketing is the place to start.

What are hashtags and how we use them?

Hashtags are everywhere. You can see them on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, at events, or even on commercials and movie trailers.

To understand why hashtags are important, you have to go back a few years.

In 2007, Twitter users began using the # sign in front of words or phrases to create groups within Twitter. Then in 2009, Twitter took a cue from their users and began hyperlinking all hashtags in tweets. Now, in 2015, all major social networks(excluding LinkedIn) hyperlink hashtags because the adoption rate has been huge!

What are hashtags?

Hashtags are a word, or group of words after the # sign (like #hashtag, #seo, #digitalmarketing or anything else). If you’re more technically inclined, you might know them as a metadata tag. For marketers - you’ll know them as a way to engage your brand with your market.

But what does hyperlinking have to do with the importance of hashtags?

When someone clicks on a hashtag on any of these social networks, they’ll automatically be shown all other public posts that include the same hashtag. This is incredibly valuable for a small business because it can expose your content to a wider audience, and help your business get found. If someone does a search on a social network, or Google, for a hashtag you used, your post — and potentially even your profile — can be found by someone you never would have reached without hashtags. This happens all the time. Hashtags are widely used to search for content within social networks and search engines, which mean hashtags, give you a great opportunity to get your information in front of potential customers without paying a dime!

How to Create a Hashtag?

Hashtags are simple things.  There are just a few technical requirements to know:

    No Spaces Allowed

A hashtag can be a single word, an abbreviation, an invented combination of letters and numbers, or a phrase.  If it is a phrase, there can be no spaces between words. All letters and numbers must run together without spaces in a hashtag.  You can’t have punctuation or symbols in your hashtag (other than the # symbol at the beginning).  Numbers are OK, but you must also have at least one letter with the numbers — hashtags cannot consist entirely of numbers.

    Start with the # Symbol

A hashtag always starts with the symbol # followed directly by letters and sometimes numbers.  Fun factoid:  depending on where you are in the world, the symbol # is called various things.  In the United States and Canada, it is called a number sign or sometimes a pound sign.

But in other places, such as the United Kingdom and Ireland, that # symbol is called a hash sign.  So you see, that’s how these labels came to be called “hashtags.”  In essence, a hashtag is a label that consists of a word or phrasetag with a hash symbol in front of it.

How should I use hashtags?

Use hashtags on all social networks you have a presence on, but don’t go overboard! Too many hashtags can hurt your engagement and can get you unfollowed. In fact, when you use more than two hashtags, your engagement actually drops by an average of 17 percent. You’ll start noticing funny hashtags, people using lots of hashtags, and even #FullSentencesTurnedIntoAHashtag. But if you’re using hashtags to help your business, it’s best to hashtag the keywords that are related to your business and industry.

How to Use a Hashtag That Already Exists?

Rather than creating your own hashtag, sometimes you want to enter a discussion around a topic where a hashtag already exists. You would simply add that hashtag somewhere (usually at the end) of your Twitter tweet or other social media update.

By doing so, you are sharing your content related to that same topic.  By adding the hashtag to your content, you are saying “Hey, I want to chime in on this discussion.” Others interested in that topic will see your content.