Link building is one of the most popular terms in internet marketing. In fact, it is the reason behind any business’s success. Unfortunately, it is also the most misinterpreted term. Marketers adopt different types of link building techniques without knowing their authenticity and lose their credibility by attracting manual penalties. Therefore, it is important to understand the basic concept of link building before putting your efforts into it. Link building is by far the most difficult task; however, if done correctly, it can bring success. Spotlight on Link building: Link building can be simply defined as a strategy to enhance a site’s traffic while improving its reputation. Modern marketers often build backlinks for their websites to achieve:

• High web visibility
• Website traffic
• Online credibility
• Referral traffic
• Better rankings

However, when it comes to link building, people have their own understanding. Sometimes they go after unethical techniques, which damage their brand’s credibility. In fact, there is a very thin dividing line between ethical and unethical. Let’s discover... Unethical link building techniques that should be avoided:

• Reciprocal link (Link exchanges)
• Link schemes
• Paid links
• Comments and forum posting

Ethical link building techniques that should be adopted:

• Blogging
• Press release writing
• Guest posting
• Conduct interviews
• Create compelling case studies
• Create beautiful videos and infographics

However, it is always safe to refer Google’s guidelines before you start link building activities. Not to forget, one of the most valuable advantages of link building is the generation of referral traffic which helps improve its overall conversion rates. Facts:

• Link building requires technical expertise.
• Link building generates extensive referral traffic.
• Good backlinks increase the likelihood of a website’s ranking in search results.
• Link building is a long-term strategy and increases a brand’s visibility.
• Link building improves a brand’s reputation, domain and authority.

Over time, your website will become popular in its niche and gain significant prominence as well. Tips:

• Understand the difference between Nofollow and Dofollow links.
• Identify high authority online sources for backlinks.
• Use a domain authority checker like - http://smallseotools.com/domain-authority-checker
• Create and publish valuable content for your targeted audiences.
• Study and analyse Penguin updates and their overall impact. (According to Google, the aim of Penguin updates is to curb the practice of using unnatural backlinks.)
• Always avoid link schemes and getting paid links.
• Create quality articles, whitepapers, and eBooks.

Popular Link Building Tools:

• BuzzSumo
• Alltop
• Google Drive
• Open Site Explorer

Analyse bounce rate, conversion rate, average time spent on site and other relevant details to adjust your link building strategy.

Statistics:  

• 81% of shoppers research products online before purchasing.
• Two-thirds of Americans aged 50-plus buy from e-retailers.
• 89% would prefer an online store with advanced mobile capabilities.
• Those who shop via mobile spend 66% more than those who shop only in-store.
• According to PWC, 67% of shoppers admit influence of social media review on their online shopping behaviour.

Thus it can be said that e-commerce websites are able to attract good number of customers. However, an online store never appears in the organic search results unless it adopts a powerful SEO strategy. A balanced SEO strategy needs to address a great number of technical, structural and content aspects. A few SEO strategies for e-commerce websites: Implement Analytics, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster code on the website to measure performance from time to time. Check every detail of your site with the help of these tools and adjust your internet marketing strategies accordingly. Select and focus on the right set of keywords. It will help you to improve the organic search performance. In fact, you also need to choose different keyword variations having high search volume in order to achieve high rankings as well as traffic. According to an online study, online store owners neglect Meta titles and descriptions, which eventually harm their websites. Therefore, optimise Meta titles and descriptions on a regular basis. Tips:

• Use Google’s Keyword Planner, Analytics, and Google Search Console to find relevant keywords and fine tune your site.
• Ensure that every page on your online store has a unique Meta title and description.
• Add canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues.
• Search engines reward sites that are mobile friendly, so make and optimise your site for mobile.
• SEO strategies drive more traffic to your store, supplement content marketing, and outperform other form of marketing.

It is a well- known fact that an e-commerce site has thousands of pages, and many of which may not be important for users as well as search engines. Therefore, use robots.txt to restrict those pages from being crawled. However, you should not use the robots.txt to block private content (use server-side authentication instead), or handle canonicalisation. This will not only improve the speed, performance and usability of your website, but also make it user and search engine friendly. Facts:

• Google uses software known as “web crawlers” to discover publicly available web pages.
• The crawl process begins with a list of web addresses from past crawls and sitemaps provided by website owners.
• With the robots.txt file, site owners can choose not to be crawled by Googlebot, or they can provide more specific instructions on how to process pages on their sites.

It is important to have Breadcrumb navigation on a website. It is useful for audiences and search engines as well. It helps the search engine better understand the site structure.  According to Wikipedia, Breadcrumbs or breadcrumbs trail is a graphical control element used as a navigational aid in user interfaces. So, devise your SEO strategy according to your business objectives and address these SEO issues to make your e-commerce site perform better.

An online survey has revealed that conversion rate optimisation poses critical challenges to online stores. Online stores also pay little attention to this concept because of their lack of knowledge and resources. However, it is not a difficult concept to understand. No doubt, conversion rate optimisation is a perfect science of understanding the behavioural patterns of users, and adjusting a website accordingly. To improve the overall conversion rate of a website, it is essential to make it authentic and compelling. You need to show that you are a genuine seller. This you can do by integrating social proofs with your website. Use testimonials from your customers, reviews, and display social media icons on your website. This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to gain confidence of your intended users. Statistics: According to Socialmediatoday, customer testimonials have the best influence (89%) on all types of content marketing. Tip:

• Use Video testimonials for higher conversion rates.
• Place your testimonials at a sensible position for maximum visibility.
• Real-life examples add tangible value to your brand.
• Add testimonials from famous customers or influential authorities and use their logos.

Gifting is an act of self-satisfaction. In fact, it is a great way of strengthening relationships. If you want to maintain good relationships with your customers, you need to gift a free e-book, instructional guides or discount coupons to them. For better results, you should reward your customers frequently so that they develop a sense of belongingness and engage with your brand. This will help you to sell more. Statistics:

• 70% of people make use of coupons or discounts they learn about from email.
• 60% of people say that receiving special offers is the best reason they subscribe to an email list from a business.

Tips:

• Proactively promote your products through discount offers and coupons.
• Try to understand how customers interact with you, and what they want from you in the future.
• Always try to disclose new opportunities to improve your customers’ experience.
• Re-design your internet marketing strategy on the basis of customers’ feedback.
• Never commit e-commerce website design mistakes to lose your customers.
• Every online store should blog regularly to connect with fans as well as to rank better.

Some online marketers use powerful triggers, which are also a good technique to boost sales. One of the best ways is to create a sense of urgency is by using certain triggering terms such as "limited time offer", "limited quantity", etc. You must take advantage of this technique to improve your site’s conversion rate as well as lower its bounce rate. Moreover, you also need to do your homework properly by:

• Regularly updating your inventory
• Embracing e-mail marketing
• Performing A/B tests
• Launching a Facebook Store
• Using Instagram to engage with your audiences.

Conclusion In a nutshell, the key to success is to keep your customers happy by making them feel more comfortable with your brand. This will automatically improve your store’s overall conversion rate.

Today, businesses have unique challenges especially when it comes to making their presence on the web and attracting customers. Some of the challenges they often face are: -          Devising focused social media marketing strategies -          Identifying the target markets -          Determining appropriate social platforms for marketing -          Identifying the impact of social media marketing on their business -          Managing social platforms and harnessing their real power -          Enhancing customer satisfaction through social media -          Improving business performance through social media Therefore, in order to carve a niche on the web, businesses must understand basic principles of social media marketing. Social media marketing not only mitigates risks, but also delivers the real value that helps a business to stay ahead of their competitors. Here are a few key elements of social media marketing:

1. Share regularly - Social media is all about sharing. Therefore, there must be regular sharing of educational documents, informational videos, inspiring infographics and presentations. This will engage more and more people.
2. Real time updates – Share your fresh content at the appropriate time. This improves the reach and effectiveness of your content. (Tip – Send well-timed and well-written messages.)
3. Focus on educating your customers – Social media marketing is also about solving problems of your customers. Therefore, focus on educating and informing your customers rather than selling your products or services aggressively.
4. Adopt multichannel approach - Social media marketing is not about "one-size-fits-all", so use various channels for sharing your content. (Use innovative Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr, slideshare, snapchat, LinkedIn and Blogs, etc. because innovation is the antidote to limits.)
5. Give free information – Disseminate as much information as possible to your customers. Provide free case studies, whitepapers, e-books and webinars to build trust.
6. Listen more – Connect with your audiences. You should listen to their problems and solve their issues.
7. Engage – Never break the chain of communication. Keep on posting your meaningful content (quotes, videos, presentations, infographics, etc. because "a picture is worth a thousand words") to engage your audiences.
8. Use top social media management tools – Use the best social media management tools in order to engage more customers and generate more traffic.

Of course, social media marketing is not a piece of cake, you need to analyse every aspect of your business to develop a focused social media marketing strategy to achieve your goal. So gear up and get ready to ascend up the ladder. Quick facts:

• The best time to post on Facebook is 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Other optimal periods include 12:00–1:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and 1:00–4:00 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays.
• One of the best slots to post on Twitter is weekdays from 12:00–3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.
• The best time to post on Pinterest is in the evening for the whole week.

Businesses spend their time and money on different types of marketing activities; however, they often fail to compete with their competitors due to lack of an extensive digital marketing strategy. Digital marketing is a broad term used for marketing of products or services using the latest digital technologies. It includes a great number of elements that can optimise a user’s experience as well as increase their customer base. Get ready to connect the dots... Here are a few digital marketing strategies that should not be ignored:

1. Search Engine Optimisation – Don’t ignore search engine optimisation. SEO is essential for businesses to improve the visibility of their websites. It also makes a website flawless and search engine friendly.
2. Search Engine Marketing – This is the process of gaining traffic by purchasing ads on search engines. You can use keywords and phrases to gain the top rankings on search engines. (It often includes Paid search ads, Paid search advertising, PPC (pay-per-click), CPC, etc.)
3. Mobile Apps - A mobile app is a software application that is designed to run on mobile devices. A mobile application can improve the overall experience of smart phone users.
4. Blogging – This is the most effective type of content marketing. Publish content regularly to connect with your widely distributed audiences.
5. Email Marketing – This is the most essential part of any marketing strategy. It helps to drive sales and improve business’ visibility on the web. Adopt it to improve your relations with your customers.
6. Social Media – Being an ideal place to publish and promote content, it needs special care. (Tip – Use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn for better results.)
7. Social Media Marketing – Use social media platforms for paid and targeted advertising. In fact, this is the best method to target your customers geographically and demographically.
8. Videos – Adopt video marketing in order to educate and inform your customers. (Tip – You can optimise your videos for your customers to establish your brand.)

No doubt, proper Digital Marketing can help your cause. So, get back to the drawing board and start a new journey... Quick facts:

• Personalised subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened.
• Picture-based posts have 600 times more engagement than text-based messages on social platforms.
• Twitter has approximately 320 million monthly active users.
• Every second two new users join LinkedIn.
• Last year 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase based on a promotional email.
• 63% of UK millennials prefer making purchases using a mobile app compared to any other platform.

Proper use of the latest social media marketing tools improves a websites’ traffic as well as the overall conversion rate. Unfortunately, most business owners fail to do that. Therefore, it is important to use the latest social media marketing tools and techniques to achieve optimum results. Here are a few intelligent social media marketing tools:

1. Use Ripl – This is an advanced and easy-to-use application suitable for creating animated social media posts. Ripl is one of the best ways to create animated videos. (Tip - Choose from a wide range of styles, fonts, colours and music to create.)
2. Klipfolio – This is an online platform to build real-time business dashboards for your team or your clients. This online platform is advanced, flexible and easy to use.
3. Use Facebook’s Slideshow ads – This is the right way to create short ads or presentations for your customers. (Tip - Add transitions, choose the image duration, and add music or narration for the maximum possible exposure.)
4. Use Promoted Pins – You can maximise your brand’s exposure and reach on Pinterest by using Promoted Pins. (Tip – Always monitor and analyse your promoted pins to see the performance of your promoted pins.)
5. Use Meet Edgar – This is one of the most flexible marketing tools; you can create archives of your old content with the help of Meet Edgar. It acts as an online catalogue that collects and categorises all your blog posts in a library.
6. Use Lavalier Mics – Use this advanced tool to improve the audio quality of your video. (Tip- Use it while interviewing someone live.)
7. Use TubeBuddy – This is a browser plugin that helps you to optimise your video. This plugin also helps you to explore and optimise titles and search queries that help your videos to perform better.
8. Use Switcher Studio – This is a mobile video app that lets you stream live to YouTube and Facebook.
9. Never ignore Twitter Analytics – Use Twitter Analytics to measure and boost your impact on Twitter. Its dashboard is easy to use and allow you to explore interests, locations and demographics of your followers. (Tip - Measure engagement and learn how to make your Tweets more successful.)
10. Use Vine – This is a short-form video sharing service where users can share 6 second long looping video clips for their audiences.

So use these smart tools to outpace your competitors. Quick facts:

• There are over 3 billion active Internet users.
• Nearly 2.1 billion people have social media accounts.
• 3.65 billion Mobile users have access to the internet via smart phones and tablets.

Worldwide businesses use the latest tools and techniques to improve their websites’ ranking. They use search engine optimisation along with other online techniques to gain competitive advantages. However, there are certain businesses who fail to achieve their objectives. The main reason is their failure to use advanced and powerful SEO tools that can simplify the process. Latest SEO tools help business owners to make informed decisions. Here are a few SEO tools to use:

1. Majestic SEO - Majestic SEO is the most popular Link intelligence tool for search engine optimisation experts as well as developers. Optimisers use it to check their backlinks.  
2. MozBar – Use this toolbar to check page authority and domain authority of your website. You can perform link and page optimisation research with its help. (Tip - Install this Chrome plugin for free.)
3. Open Site Explorer – Use this tool to identify link building opportunities, research and analyse backlinks, identify top performing pages, view social activity and analyse anchor text.
4. SEO PowerSuite - SEO PowerSuite is the most effective rank monitoring tool. Optimisers use it for backlink analysis as well as keyword research process. (Tip – Use it to check broken links and HTML code errors to improve the usability of your site.)
5. Seoreviewtools – Use its "Web page Word Count checker" to check the total number of words used inside the body of a web page. (Tip - Submit multiple URLs to check the word count.)
6. SEOquake – This is a free plugin that provides you with key SEO metrics for a specific web page. This toolbar helps you to identify as well as fix various optimisation issues. (Tip – Use this toolbar to monitor a huge selection of SEO parameters.)
7. ShareMetric – This is a Chrome extension that shows social media share counts, link metrics and organic search visibility metrics.
8. SimilarWeb – Use this extension to explore your competitors' website traffic statistics. This helps business owners to adjust their digital marketing strategy accordingly. (Tip – Use it to explore both mobile apps and site’s traffic.)
9. Google analytics – Use this powerful tool to measure and analyse social media traffic, bounce rates, conversion rates, sales funnel as well as the purchasing process.

Use these authentic SEO tools to improve your presence on the web. Quick facts:

• 89% of customers begin their buying process with a search engine.
• The top challenges in SEO are link building (cited by 41% of corporate marketers) and keyword research (39%).
• 72% of marketers rate search engine optimisation (SEO) as a successful tool in achieving marketing objectives.

Content marketing is spreading like never before. It transforms businesses, improves customer relations, establishes effective communication channels and much more. Businesses use the most effective content marketing techniques to gain that competitive advantage. However, there are many more tools that can improve your bottom line and deliver instant results. Here are a few significant content marketing tools that need are recommended:

• Inbound.org - Use this powerful website to share ideas, give feedback, establish authority and discuss ongoing trends. You can sign up to receive a daily or weekly email digest.
• Alltop.com – Use this platform to read popular stories, matters on specific subjects (photography, food, science, religion, celebrities, fashion and much more), breaking news and much more.
• Buffer – Use this incredible platform to schedule posts across a variety of social networks, including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Buffer shares your content at the best possible time throughout the day. It makes sharing faster and easier.
• Hootsuite - Hootsuite is one of the top social media management dashboards. Use it to manage your multiple networks and profiles as well as measure your campaign’s performance.
• Prweb – Use prweb to generate buzz online about your products and services. Use it to increase traffic.
• BuzzStream – Use this platform to promote your products, services as well as content to build links.
• Dasheroo – This online dashboard allows you to access and monitor all your KPI data (web analytics, marketing, social media and sales) at one place and on any device.
• Traackr – Use it to manage, validate, gauge and scale influencer marketing programs. It also allows you to manage your relationships and track their influence on your business.
• Klout – This is an amazing tool to create and share great content. You can also measure your content’s influence.
• Storify – This is a good social network service that allows users to create stories using social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Use these powerful content marketing tools to:

• strengthen your marketing strategy
• add value to your business
• meet evolving needs
• improve productivity
• cope with uncertainty
• mitigate potential risks and more.

Quick facts:

• Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing.
• 93% of B2B marketers use content marketing. (Source: CMI)

Link building is an essential SEO activity. Of course, it is a difficult task; however, if done correctly, it can lead to success. It doesn't matter what type of website (e-commerce or educational) you have, but with a better link building approach; you can easily gain an edge. Here are a few link building strategies that need to be followed:

1. Create an RSS feed – Create an RSS feed to publish updated information (blog entries, news and much more). It is a good way to get a link back.
2.  Build relationships – Join local communities on social platforms, participate in group discussions, get involved in surveys, ask questions and give answers on community’s forums and show your interest.
3. Ask for links from relevant websites – Ask your employees, colleagues, business partners and clients to give a link back. This will improve your site’s credibility.
4. Video Submission – Submit your video content on top video submission directories to get better exposure as well as backlinks. (Use www.Vimeo.Com, Youtube, Ustream and Tumblr.)
5. Press Release Submission - By submitting a press release to top PR distribution sites or syndication sites, you can easily build links for your site.
6. Podcast Directories - Submit your podcast to popular podcast directories. This is the best way to achieve a backlink.
7. Paid directories – By submitting your website to paid directories, you can achieve quality links. In this way, you can also increase the value of your site.
8. Niche Specific Directories – For relevant link building, you need to submit your website to specific niche directories.
9. Document Submission – Marketers often overlook such directories; however, they are highly beneficial when it comes to link building. Submit your PDFs, PowerPoint presentations and word documents to high PR document submission sites. (Tip – Use SlideShare, Scribd, and Issuu.)
10. Logo Design Directories – Submit your website’s logo to top logo submission directories to get a link back. (Tip - Use graphicdesignblog.org, logofaves.com, logomoose.com and logofi.com)
11. Infographic Submission - Submit your infographics to top infographic submission directories or blogs to get a link back. (Tip – Use SlideShare, CoolInfographics, Visual.ly and Reddit.)
12.  E-Book Directories - Submit your e-books to relevant e-books submission sites to help your audiences and get a backlink.
13.  Blog Directories - If you have a blog, submit it to various relevant blog directories to increase its overall value and reach.

Link building is a complex task, which requires plenty of time and efforts. So, plan your link building strategies according to your business objectives. Quick tips:

• Link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites.
• Analyse your competitors.
• Write relevant content.
• Use high quality visuals in your content.
• Eliminate bad links.
• Understand "Penguin updates" before building backlinks.
• Write high quality e-books, white papers, manuals and guides for your users.

SEO has completely changed the concept of Internet marketing. Online businesses use it to reduce their advertising cost, increase customer base, improve their website’s visibility and increase public awareness. However, its fluctuating nuances always pose challenges to them. As a result, businesses keep on exploring new ideas and techniques to win the race. Follow these SEO ideas and techniques and outperform your competitors:

• Long tail keywords – Use long tail keywords in your title tags. This is an effective way to achieve good rank in SERPs.
• SEO friendly URLs - Use of keywords in URLs is a good way to get your website ranked.
• Friendly content – Write fresh, actionable, reliable and authentic content for your users.
• Write Privacy Policy and Terms Page – Always include Privacy Policy and Terms and conditions Pages on your website to make it unique and authentic.
• Wisely use H1 and H2 Tags – Never ignore the power of H1 and H2 tags; use your keywords for maximum benefits.
• Follow the title tag rule – Try to keep your title tag within 60 characters. This will attract search engines as well as your users.
• Integrate social sharing buttons – Integrate social sharing buttons on your website to make your content shareable and viral.
• Optimise landing pages – Create valuable and reliable content for your landing pages. Include CTAs and videos to reduce the bounce rate and improve the conversion rate of your website.
• Use Majestic SEO – Use it to check your backlink profile and analyse your extensive URL lists.
• Use Google Search Console – Use this amazing tool to check the health of your website. If you find some serious issues or errors, fix them immediately.
• Identify and remove thin content – Analyse your website carefully and replace thin content with high quality and actionable content that can address specific problems of your users.
• Add video to your home page – If possible, add a video to your home page to engage your audiences and improve the overall conversion rate.
• Use Yelp – Use it to improve your visibility in local markets. Optimise your profile to engage more and more audiences.
• Use Site Analyzer – Use this robust tool to improve your website’s design, content, as well as performance.

Use these ideas and techniques to improve your website’s visibility significantly. Quick facts:

• 60% of companies report that their SEO and content strategy are integrated.
• 72% of marketers rate search engine optimisation (SEO) as a successful tool in achieving marketing objectives.