How Google RankBrain Algorithm Works

Before diving right into the use of Google’s RankBrain algorithm to improve your SEO, learn about how it works first to gain an idea of how the tool analyzes queries. Take note, the tool can increase the influence of all users on search results despite the fact that it is a machine learning algorithm. It operates in such a way because it takes and uses direct feedback from the users’ judgment of a site’s quality.

It Analyzes Keywords through User Intent

RankBrain was built to figure out the meaning behind a query you typed in the search engine. Despite the influx of several keywords in a query that Google has never encountered before, the RankBrain tool can take the analysis a notch higher. The tool can connect these keywords to previously analyzed ones. The goal of Google is pretty simple: to provide users with the best search engine experience in the shortest amount of time. This means when a user searches for a query, they instantly get results based on the analysis of RankBrain.

A great example would be searching for “user experience UX”. If you are to think like Google, you should be able to realize the purpose of the query. The results will most likely be a rich snippet of the definition of user experience. With the RankBrain tool, Google was able to provide the most reasonable result for the query.

As you can see, Google was able to provide results within 0.60 seconds. Note that the search engine provided you with results without keyword stuffing or website spamming. This is due to the machine learning RankBrain tool interpreting the search query in a specific way.

Moreover, RankBrain is also capable of providing you with the same results despite the differences in the wording of the query. Let us take the prior example, user experience UX. Different users have varied ways to express their queries. It could be typed in as “UX user experience”, “UX” or “user experience”. You will obtain similar results because RankBrain thinks the queries are essentially looking for one thing and that is the definition of user experience.

It Analyzes User Satisfaction

RankBrain’s efforts do not stop at providing you with results best suited to your query. In addition to analyzing user intent, the tool can also validate your satisfaction based on the results presented. Moreover, it can adjust the results in the future searches you make.

So, how does RankBrain do it? It’s simple. The tool uses user experience signal which determines if you have clicked the top search results and spent plenty of time on the site or if you have hit the back button to look for another result.

In other words, RankBrain is able to analyze if a site consists of content that you have found useful. With this, the tool can give the site a boost so that it appears next time a similar query has been done. Conversely, if you clicked on a site and spent little time on it. RankBrain brings this site down to make way for reliable sites to appear on the top list.

Ranking signals include the following:

• Keyword matching and relevant topics
• Depth of content and freshness
• Engagement of the content
• Diversity of links
• Domain authority
• Anchor text

RankBrain uses historical search data to determine the sites that provide the best results for a query. When it comes to “user experience”, Google knows the pages with the most updated definitions which will most likely obtain higher dwell times. With that, RankBrain will provide you with fresh and in-depth content about “user experience”.

Tips for Optimizing Your SEO with RankBrain Algorithm

Now that you already have a basic idea of how Google RankBrain works, it is time to figure out what it means for your site. Below are some tips for optimizing SEO by pleasing the requirements of the RankBrain tool.

Create Truly Helpful Content

Content is arguably the most important element of any site. Aside from the fact that it is one of the most important ranking factors of Google, users judge your site depending on how informational and useful your content is. RankBrain notices and receives experience signals.

Reinvent Keyword Research

Before you begin creating content with the keywords you have, take a step back and put yourself in the shoes of your potential site visitors. Determine their status in the buyers’ journey. Are they in the awareness, consideration or decision stage?

Awareness is the stage wherein they are asking questions starting with why, what, and how. The consideration is at the stage wherein they have found the answer to their queries. Finally, the decision is the stage to which they decide to act upon the solution to their problem as presented to them by RankBrain.

Another reliable process to learn the user’s intent is to study the related search terms found at the bottom of the SERPs. For “user experience UX”, people also look for courses, principles, and examples. Since RankBrain analyzes synonyms and similar phrasing for particular search queries, it will not yield your site a high ranking for all variations.

Shift Focus to Organic Clickthrough Rate

Learning how to increase your site’s Clickthrough Rate or CTR should be part of your efforts for Google RankBrain SEO. The more users interacting with your site, the higher the CTR. Here are some effective brief notes to guide you in increasing your site’s CTR.

Measure first

Measure everything first so that you will have an idea of a plan to manage it. For a side-by-side comparison, make sure to take screenshots before CTA.

Focus on your headlines

The headlines are the most prominent element in the search results. With that, you should use proper numbers as well as formatting.

Test titles

To find the most effective and searchable headlines, use plugins and tools. Take note, testing is better than releasing an article with so-so headlines and waiting for either a negative or positive impact.

Create custom meta descriptions

Your meta descriptions must contain a call to action (CTA). Make sure to use powerful words and emotions. Target the pain points of the users making the query.

Take note of your site speed

The speed of a website highly affects its CTR. The speed of the site is highly related to the dwell time, bounce, and conversion rates.

Improve Dwell Time, Bounce and Conversion Rate

To recap, the dwell time is the duration of a page visit made by users. On the other hand, bounce rate is the number of people who left your site without clicking on anything within the page and conversion rate is those who made actions.

To improve these actions, here are some of the things you can do:

1. Optimize your user’s first impression through site speed and mobile-friendliness.
2. Limit ads and popups.
3. Prioritize your site user’s needs by understanding their wants. With this, you can produce useful content that
4. they may find informational.
5. Use links internally as it helps users discover your site.
6. Perform A/B testing to drastically improve conversion rates. As well as releasing only excellent quality of CTA,
7. page design, headlines, and layouts.
8. Provide testimonials and proof of excellent service to show prospective visitors the credibility of your site.

Key Takeaway

In a nutshell, Google RankBrain understands users’ queries to provide them with improved and suitable search results. With voice search becoming a trend, RankBrain will most likely obtain an increased importance. Finally, you should shift your focus to your human readers. Despite web crawlers in search engines, users will still be able to determine the usability of your site.

The post How to Use Google’s Rankbrain Algorithms to Improve Your SEO appeared first on Outsource Force.

Googlebot is a web crawler. Think of it as a spider that jumps from one webpage to another to scrape for valuable content and information. For those who are only familiar with Googlebot, other web crawlers or user agents include Bingbot (Bing), Slurp Bot (Yahoo), and Alexa Crawler (Amazon Alexa). These are web crawlers that come in the form of user agents because they are branded bots of particular search engines.

Fundamentals of Search

So how do web crawlers work? Web crawlers perform a three-step process in order to generate entries for a search engine index.

They start with discovering sites through internal linking, sitemaps, and fetch requests. Take note that despite the fact that web crawlers are attracted to sitemaps, they still do not account for PageRank.

The next step of the process is reading. Web crawlers read webpages to scrape information much as a user would. Going back to links found on pages, web crawlers also discover new information by crawling to those links. They crawl from one link to another and bring the scraped data back to the search engine’s servers.

How Web Crawlers Index Your Site

When you want to optimize a site, you would need to satisfy both the users and web crawlers for UX and crawler experience. While it may be difficult to think about fulfilling the requirement of search engines to rank high and keep users’ interests in mind, there will always be a solution.

Since you are a user yourself, the only thing you have to do now is to think like a web crawler. Here are the following optimization methods web crawlers like Googlebot uses that you should apply to boost your technical SEO and increase the UX your website almost instantly.

Principles For A Googlebot Optimized Site

Since Googlebot optimization comes before search engine optimization, learn the principles for an optimized site below.

Use robots.txt Wisely

Robots.txt or robot exclusion standard is a text file containing instructions of web robots on how they should crawl pages. This text file is created by webmasters for their website. Simply put, robots.txt is essential because they serve as a directive to all Google bots. These web crawlers are on crawl budget; directing them to crawl to the right pages will prevent crawlers from expending it.

To use robots.txt wisely is to modify it accordingly. The whole idea of robots.txt is to tell web crawlers where it should not go. This means that crawlers must not crawl through any unnecessary pages or silos of a site. The more time the web crawlers spend on crawling to important sections, the more necessary data it can scrape and bring back.

Create Fresh Content

A site whose content is visited frequently by crawlers is more likely to gain traffic. Again, you must note that PageRank is the determinative factor in crawl frequency. Yet when compared to the freshness factor of similar ranked pages, PageRank becomes less important. Site pages with low ranking can still win your site traffic if they get crawled frequently than your competitor.

Utilize Internal Linking

Internal linking connects one page of the site to a different page on the same site. It aids in site navigation, defines the hierarchy of a site, and distributes page ranking power throughout the site. Utilizing internal linking means generating lots of content. More content means more ways to incorporate internal links.

A great linking strategy is a counterpart of an awesome content strategy. You should be able to create plenty of relevant and linkable content. After site content is created, link deeper and make use of links natural for readers.

Key Takeaway

For users to search for anything and everything they can think of can be tedious because of the amount of information available online. The existence of web crawlers took hard work of searching for users. These web crawlers index sites with the most valuable content.

With this, users are recommended with a few of the best pages out of the existing almost limitless amount of pages with similar information. To think like a web crawler is quite simple. The goal is to appease the search engine’s requirements through site content that delivers outstanding UX to experience organic growth. Finally, your intent to think like a web crawler brings you to learn how to boost your technical SEO.

The post Think Like Web Crawlers To Boost Your Technical SEO appeared first on Outsource Force.

One of the most popular social platforms today is Instagram. It has introduced many changes to different industries and the personal lives of people all over the world. It’s quite easy to see why. The photo-sharing app has since then evolved into an effective business tool for influencers, businesses, media personalities, and the like.

Instagram has made some interesting changes you need to watch out for. Use the system to your advantage. Gone are the days where artificial engagement is prominent on the platform, as organic traffic now has the opportunity to grow and flourish.

Optimize Your Instagram Bio

Your Instagram bio may seem unimportant at first glance. It has a limited word count and you can’t really get that creative with it. But as you might have noticed, influencers and personalities use their Instagram bio effectively as a personal calling card which can potentially attract more followers.

Take a look at your current Instagram bio. What should you put in it to make it look better? Start off with your name, personal tags, and labels. Are you a brand? What are you promoting? What kind of influencer are you? When you add the necessary information, you’re showing your followers what’s interesting about you. This can be helpful if you want to appeal to a niche market and instantly filter out short term followers. You want long-term followers who are interested in your content.

Now if you want to optimize your business account, you need to add your contact information. This can be your email or Facebook page. This can make your page look legitimate and professional. You can instantly separate yourself from the many personal accounts on the platform. It helps to add a call to action to your bio which encourages followers to interact with you.

Fix Your Images

Instagram is a photo-sharing platform. You need to treat it that way, so don’t upload low-quality posts. This applies to your photo quality and caption quality. The right image and caption can bring your photo to the explore page. Then from the explore page, users can engage with your account and see if it aligns with their interest.

It is important to assess what kind of person or brand you are. Do you need a theme for your feed? Are you promoting products? What kind of target market are you looking at? For example, if you’re a photographer, you’d need to post high-quality post-processed photos while also keeping in line with the theme of your feed. Then as an artist, you could be promoting a certain medium and targeting a niche audience. In general, think of who you’re planning to post for and work your way from there.

Cheat Algorithms

There’s another way you can optimize your Instagram images for SEO. Recently, Instagram has rolled out the option to add alt-text to your photos. This works best for public accounts, so make sure you set it up that way before publishing your posts. Alt-text ensures that your images are searchable on Google. Your alt-text should describe the image you just posted. When users are not connected to a network, alt-text can serve as a way for users to know what the image is.

But it’s more than that. The alt-text is not your image caption. Alt-text sends a message to Instagram by making it more visible to people who like your content. Instagram uses the alt-text to see what’s in your image and allows it to appear on their timelines. This means people who are looking for related content see it. Instead of getting lost in the timeline, you can use the algorithm to make sure your followers are updated through alt-text. You can grow your account organically just by adding an alternative text to your images.

To make it searchable to Google, you can use alt-text to add popular keywords that relate to your image. People who search on google use keywords to search and if you apply the same principle. You can make your image searchable through Google’s SEO.

Key Takeaway

Instagram is a powerful social media platform anyone can use. Some still prefer using it as a personal photo album but if you want to increase your presence as a brand, you can try these techniques out. Technology is always evolving and so is your favorite social media platform. You need to keep up with the changes to remain relevant online, no matter what kind of account you are. Evolve and empower your account in 2019 with these tips.

The post Ways to Empower Your Instagram Account for SEO in 2019 appeared first on Outsource Force.

Many companies have this notion that choosing between the two strategies is an either/or type of situation and it’s not surprising why they may think that way.

On one hand, you have a more organic, structured and content-driven approach in the form of SEO, while on the other you have a more resource-intensive and direct approach with PPC. There is an apparent clash of ethos, and that can make someone favor one method over the other as if they were choosing a side.

The important thing people have to know regarding PPC and SEO is that they can be used together, whether independently or synergistically, to make your online marketing efforts more successful. Let us see how you can use both methods to optimize your search engine marketing strategies.

Be open-minded when it comes to your strategies

As suggested above, it may seem that SEO and PPC campaigns can work against each other to divide the number of visitors that your site can get, but that is simply not the case.

Whether you’re limited by resources (money, labor) or your organization’s philosophy regarding your marketing efforts (favoring one over the other), it pays to keep an open mind when it comes to your strategy. Whichever the case may be, using both SEO and PPC must start with a conscious decision.

Consider the two methods as two separate roads that lead to the same location — your website! Being open-minded about your strategies means adopting both SEO and PPC when possible.For example, let’s say that your SEO efforts are paying off and your website is attracting a reasonable number of visitors. That does not necessarily mean that you are already converting these visits into actual sales. Sometimes, your online leads take a while to make up their minds and leave your site before making a purchase or availing a service.

This is where PPC can benefit you. By using an approach called remarketing, you can usher those previous leads back to your website at a later time when they finally make up their minds.

Sometimes, it can be the other way around, with SEO bringing them back to your website that they previously encountered through an ad. Either way, you are benefiting from using both strategies. With a bit of patience, using both can pay off in the long run because eventually, they will work together to build your brand and online presence.

Make use of the data you can get from PPC and SEO

Pay-per-click advertising is a great search engine marketing option for those who like looking at analytics and data. This is not to say that there are no analytical metrics that can measure the efficacy of SEO, but with PPC it is faster and more direct.

Keywords are the foundation of any search engine marketing strategy. PPC allows you to observe how well a keyword is doing in relation to your website. You can keep track of how many clicks, visits, and conversions your PPC strategy is generating and identify the keywords that are performing well and the ones that are not. You can then focus your SEO efforts on those specific keywords and help build more traffic.

Again, this can also work the other way around. With enough time, your SEO results can also yield valuable data that can benefit PPC. Look at the clickthrough, conversion, bounce, and exit rates of both strategies and use them to and make your overall approach more effective.

Consider where your company is in terms of development

If you have a startup business and you want to use search engine marketing to target local markets, pay-per-click advertising can be the most cost-effective way of going about it.

However, once your company starts growing and you want to tap into bigger markets, the costs of PPC will also rise. You might be inclined to think that bearing the increased costs is fine, but that isn’t the case. Sticking to one kind of online marketing strategy can end up costing you more and more money while generating marginal returns.

Once your company becomes bigger, try scaling down the PPC and putting more effort into SEO. Generating organic traffic helps you transition into bigger online markets without costing you a fortune. Don’t forget that once you stop paying for advertising, your search engine visibility can also drop. Consider making small-scale SEO efforts while making PPC your main strategy when you are still starting out.

One of the best things about using both SEO and PPC to generate your online presence and conversions is that it can support your company’s development at any stage.

Key Takeaway

Now that you know how to optimize your search engine marketing strategy, it’s time to put this into action.

Always remember that SEO and PPC are tactics that work better together, not separately. Keep an open mind, use valuable data meaningfully, and analyze where your company is in its life cycle. Aside from that, never stop researching new ways to make current strategies better. Only then can you give your company’s website the best chance of being successful.

The post How to use PPC with SEO to Optimize Your Search Engine Marketing Strategies appeared first on Outsource Force.

This can be accomplished by using various keyword research tools that will help you identify highly searchable and competitive keywords. While these tools are effective, they can be costly, especially when you are looking to use premium features. Thankfully, Google offers a free tool that can help you with keyword research — Google Trends.

How to do keyword research using Google Trends

Google Trends is a tool that keeps track of the most popular trends, terms, events, and personalities that are being searched on Google. The ability to monitor these popular trends makes it a great place to find the right keywords that will help you in your content marketing. Here is how you can do keyword research using Google Trends to help you create high traffic content.

Find upward and downward trends

One of the best ways to get started with keyword research using Google Trends is to enter a keyword of your choice and take a look at its popularity and significance over a certain time period. For this example, I’ll be taking a look at the keyword “Halloween” and see how it has fared over the last five years.

Since this is a seasonal keyword, Halloween consistently gets a rising amount of traffic during October of every year. This is a great example of how interest fluctuates over time, allowing you to see which keywords would provide you with better results.

Along with upward trends, you can also use Google Trends to check if a topic has seen a decline in interest as well. This downward trend is common for a variety of fads and trends that have emerged over the years. Take a look at Planking, for instance, which peaked in popularity around 2011 and has been in decline ever since.

While Google Trends does not show you metrics such as search volume, search interest is still a great indicator of how popular and searchable a keyword is, allowing you to find ones that you can create content for.

Focus on consistently popular keywords and terms

When it comes to finding the best keywords, it is best to look for one that has been consistently searchable and popular for a long time. This will help you create content that would be able to generate a high amount of traffic. Depending on your area of specialization, it is best to find related terms and topics under the same niche to allow you to create a wide variety of content.

For this example, we want to create content about digital marketing — a topic that not only has consistent interest and traffic but is also one that has become increasingly popular as well.

If you want an effective way to rank up using your content, focus on well-known keywords and create helpful and useful evergreen blog posts as they have the best potential to provide a very steady amount of traffic.

Compare keywords and trends with each other

One of the best features of Google Trends is the ability to compare keywords and trends with each other to see how their interest and searchability has fared over a number of months and years. In this example, we pit two very popular brands, Coca Cola and Pepsi, against each other.

As you can see, comparing two keywords or terms together helps you see the ups and downs of its search popularity. You can use this information to further narrow down your keyword choices and find ones that would perform better for your niche. This is also a great competitor analysis tool, as you can track competitor keyword performance, and compare it with your own set of keywords to see if your strategies and campaigns are successful.

Look at related topics and queries

Aside from the upward and downward trends of keywords and terms, you can also use Google Trends to look at related topics and queries. This will help you explore more topics related to your niche and craft an even wider array of content.

Let’s try finding keyword variations and related terms by searching for the term “Digital Marketing” and select worldwide results for a more comprehensive view.

As you can see, related topics and queries can help you find new topics to explore. In this case, you can create content focused on digital marketing trends, digital marketing media, or even the fundamentals of digital marketing.

You can also delve deeper into topics and queries that you might be able to write about or use as a keyword for your website. The amount of data that Google Trends provides allows you to create a comprehensive list of topics and keywords that you can center your SEO and content marketing campaign around.

Key Takeaway

Google Trends is a versatile tool that can be utilized for content marketing and keyword research. By following these steps, finding ideal keywords and crafting high-traffic content is now much easier.

The post How to Perform Keyword Research Using Google Trends appeared first on Outsource Force.

Hashtags were used almost exclusively by early adopters of social media. But as people started to understand the mechanics of hashtags, they became widely adapted and embraced by the marketing and advertising industry, making it part of pop culture.

People have different interpretations of hashtags. Some associate hashtags with social media while others see them as a way to express the thought of the moment. Still others find them as annoying disruptions to logical discussions. These varied interpretations just point out how widely misunderstood, abused and misused the term is.

Hashtags, are in fact an efficient way in finding content that has relevance to specific topics and the people talking about said topics. Social platforms also have search facility just like in Google, Yahoo or Bing. Searches on Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, or Pinterest are made every day using words and hashtags.

What hashtags primarily do is to make visible to others on social media platforms and search engines, conversations, contents or updates when optimized with the word hashtags. If you click or search for a hashtag, you will see a display of those using hashtag in conversation. This instantly identifies an audience sharing common interests.

Using Hashtags in Search

Clicking on a hashtag is a search function. Clicking on it will reveal all updates with that hashtag along with related promoted tweets which is the same function for queries in search engines.

Creating and Registration of Hashtags

Anyone can create a hashtag. It can be registered on Hashtags.org. The same site also provides tracking for all hashtags. While there’s no clear rule on hashtag ownership, it could be vital to discussion around a trademark, event or promotional campaign.

How to Use Hashtags

People who create hashtags want others to use it as many times as possible. You should include hashtags on social media profiles if you are promoting a specific event. Or better yet, include it on the related website in a post. In many cases, hashtags pick up momentum and peaks interest of others who didn’t really understand what the hashtags meant. It used to be that hashtags are only used in Twitter but now they appear online and offline, obviously intending to promote engagement.

Why Use Hashtags?

If you want to find out what discussion your customers are engaged in or what your competitors are doing, you can use hashtags to determine and identify the frequency of discussion of specific topics, the extent of reach, and the audience sentiments.

Hashtags are also a great way to engage people in discussions. People who are interested and want to join discussions on search engine optimization on Twitter can click “#seochat”.

For widely supported hashtag-identified discussions, Twitter displays “trending” while Google+ calls them “hot topics”. So far, Facebook isn’t as transparent with hashtag activity and LinkedIn has not recognized hashtags yet.

Hashtags have also proven to be effective in streamlining communication around circumstances where other forms of communication – TV, radio and print, are not effective in reaching audiences. World events such as the Tsunami in Thailand, Superstorm Sandy, Oklahoma tornados and other similar disasters, reached global audience through hashtags. Conversely, hashtags are also used to share happy news and events like the announcement of birth of the royal baby of Prince William and Kate.

Other uses of hashtags include:

• Promoting an event or conference

• Reaching consumers

• Announcement of special promotional campaigns

• Promoting the brand

• Anchor campaigns

Hashtag is a useful tool that can be used to reach out to new audiences, connect like-minded people and facilitate discussions and conversations making it an important part of social media strategy.

The post Defining the Role of Hashtags in Search and Social Media Platforms appeared first on Outsource Force.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO and Search Engine Marketing or SEM are two different services despite some similarities in functionality. It is likely that many business owners are more familiar with SEM as it refers to the important strategies for Internet marketing. SEM includes tactics such as paid listings, search engine optimization and other search-engine related services.

SEO

One definition of SEO or search engine optimization is: the strategies and techniques are used to ensure that a website is accessed by search engine crawlers thereby increasing the chances of the website being found by the search engine. These are the strategies that affect the visibility of a website or a web page in the natural/organic or unpaid search results. Search engines like Google are driven by the desire to provide the users with the most relevant web pages pertinent to what they are looking for. The continuous update of the search engine algorithms are fueled by such desire of relevant content and information. SEO has on-page and off-page categories where specific elements are used in order to improve the page ranking with search engines.

SEM

Search engine marketing is a broader term used to include various options available to use a search engine’s technology that includes paid advertisements. It offers an opportunity to pay only for each click on the ads that leads to your website. Such advertisements will appear on the page of consumer’s specifically looking for your products, goods or services. This should result in a higher conversion rate. A popular example of an SEM strategy is PPC or pay-per-click advertisement.

The Difference Between SEO and SEM

While both terms target to achieve the same objective of getting more searchers to visit the website, they differ in the methodology they use to achieve those objectives. While SEO concentrates on organic search results, SEM uses the search engines to promote your website or business, making SEM an important follow through component of SEO.

SEM traffic is one of the most important sources of online traffic because it is specifically targeted. People use the Internet through the search engines to find solutions or information about a specific problem or need. As they are likely to see your website as part of their search results, when they click on an ad they are likely to convert. The relevancy of the displayed ads makes SEM traffic more valuable compared to others in terms of conversion.

Hence, it is probably safe to say that SEO and SEM are not competing terms. They complement each other. A website that has a solid SEO buildup and foundation has to rely on the targeted traffic that will come from paid advertising. On the other hand, no SEM campaign will ever roll if a website has no solid SEO platform for how else can the website with the paid ads be found if they are not search-engine optimized? SEO must be the first stage in promoting the site through organic optimization techniques and after the site has ranked well with search engines to ensure visitors find the site will SEM be implemented in order to achieve conversion.  SEO and SEM cannot be effective without each other.

The post SEO and SEM: Differentiating the Two Internet Marketing Terms appeared first on Outsource Force.

Twitter, for example, have developed a language of their own. Some may sound funny and strange but they all are nonetheless Twitter-unique.

In order to use some of the Twitter terms like a social media pro, get familiar with these words and their corresponding meaning.

Common Twitter Language

The “at” (@) sign is used to mention another Twitter account. For example, @HubSpot. Used within the Twitter account, it becomes a link to that account’s profile. While it may be used by others as a geographical reference, @ is Twitter-specific.

The “hash” (#) is used to highlight keywords, events, topics or emotions in a tweet. A hashtag in Twitter turns the word or phrase into a link to easily see and screen certain tweets that contain the same tag. For example, “loving the #weather” or “feeling #tiredandemotional”.

The “caret” (˄) is also known as a hat sign and is used to denote a tweet composed and sent by an individual on behalf of a group account that is used by multiple people account. This is how it is used in tweet – “^JS”.

The “dollar sign” ($) is used in Twitter as a financial hash tag for a company’s shortened stock market name/code. For example, Google’s shortened stock market name is GOOG. “$GOOG” becomes a link to Google site.

“AFAIK” means “As far as I know”.

“CC” – its original meaning is “carbon copy” like how it’s used in memos and email. CC is a way of making sure a Twitter user sees certain content. If used with “@”, e.g. “cc @Bob” – it will draw a Tweet to someone’s attention.

“DM” is “direct message”. It’s a way to privately message a follower on Twitter. It’s a counterpart of Facebook’s “PM” or “private message”. In tweets, you’ll often see “DM me for details” or “I’ll DM you the price”.

“#FF” stands for  “Follow Friday” – an endorsement or shout out to other Twitter users suggesting that people follow them.

“ICYMI” is for “in case you missed it”. This is often used when a Twitter user retweets his/her own content from previous tweet.

“MM” stands for “Music Monday” used to suggest music you are currently enjoying or artist recommendations. While this is no longer that much popularly used these days, you may still see “#MM” tweets once in a while.

“NSFW” means “not safe for work”. This denotes a potentially inappropriate content.

“OH” is “overheard”. Used in Twitter, OH is a way of reporting a funny or eyebrow-raising comment.

“PRT” means “partial retweet” which is used to let people know some editing had been done to a tweet. It can also be used to mean “Please retweet”.

“RT” stands for “Retweet”. When another user’s tweet is forwarded with an added comment RT is used. For example, “Must see! RT @John: This video is hilarious www.funnyvideo.com”

These are just a partial list of the terms commonly used in Twitter. Some new words may be expected to develop in the foreseeable future. Just make sure, you remain updated so you can catch up with the Twitter lingo and not be left wondering.

The post Understand Twitter Specific Terms Like A Social Media Expert appeared first on Outsource Force.

Each one of these SEO companies you find on the World Wide Web can lay claim to their capabilities in guaranteeing top page ranking on Google’s organic search. As to who can genuinely deliver the promise, it would take some serious analysis to identify that SEO agency.

What to Look For in an SEO Agency

Beautiful Website

Should you gauge their expertise with their visually-appealing websites? The answer to this question is “yes” if you are looking at hiring an SEO that can also handle website design issues. The answer is “no” if what you want is an SEO company that only focuses on optimizing the website with organic-based strategies. The best SEO company in the Philippines, for example would be one that can offer both services. Having a visually appealing website with quality and well-crafted and optimized contents will be a sure formula for improving business’ revenue-generating activities.

Top Ranking in Localized Search

This maybe a bit tricky. Of course, you would want an SEO company that ranks or appears on the top page of the organic search results. But not all SEO websites that you see on the SERPs are there because they are the experts in the field. There are SEO websites that consistently rank high in SERPs, mainly because they have been running their websites for a specific number of years. And search engines like Google, put a lot of weight on this. If you have identified a high-ranking SEO website from the results page, you must do some research or due diligence to find out other possible reasons why said site is ranking on the SERPs.

Determine What You Need for Your Website

It will make a difference if you know exactly what you want done on your website – link building or link removal, content marketing, PPC management, social media exposure, etc. Depending on your target online marketing goals, you should be able to narrow down your selection to the SEO agencies that cater to your specific requirements.

Check SEO’s References and Case Studies

Ask the SEO agency on how they can help you achieve your goals. Ask what tools they have used to track and analyze links and campaigns. Have they used tools such as Majestic SEO or the popular LinkResearchtools? If they don’t show you documented proofs of what they have accomplished with real customers, don’t bother calling them again. The best SEO agency will not have any problem or issue showing you what they have done for other clients like you. They may not have clients that are big brands like ebay.com or samsung, but their clients should have stuck with them for quite some time. If you are running a self-storage company, you should look for an SEO agency that has done work with 10 other self-storage companies, with good and acceptable results and recently – not ten years ago. Such would be a good fit for your SEO requirements.

Make the SEO Agency Tell You Stories

Some SEO firms approach the SEO task tactically and there’s nothing wrong about that. But there are SEO agencies that would use the same approach and sprinkle it with a lot of creativity. If an SEO agency can tell you more than what you have read on their social media profile, chances are they know what they are doing and should be good at it. But that’s not to say that they only tell the success stories. You would have a better insight of their strengths and weaknesses if they are able to account for their failures as well.

The selection process should include setting clear objectives, getting bids from multiple SEOs, doing due diligence and analyzing gathered information. These should be enough to lead you to the right and the best SEO agency that will help you achieve your specific online marketing goals.

The post How to Determine the Best SEO Agency appeared first on Outsource Force.

It’s one thing to know that you are using some dishonest link building in an attempt to improve search engine rankings, and it’s another thing to know for sure that your site has been captured by Penguin 2.0 to be a black hat activities advocate. But whether or not you’re sure of your offense, Google undoubtedly has you on its watch list and just waiting for the right time to make your violation known through a warning.

But instead of waiting for such warning, which you know will be coming in any time, there are some ways you can check if you have been hit by Penguin 2.0. How? Read on below:

• Check analytics for a sudden drop in traffic. This is a clear indication of Penguin’s punishment if your analytics showed a plummet in your site traffic.

• Monitor rankings and turn off location settings and personalization by adding “&pws=0” to the end of the query string in the address bar to get to the nearest truth possible.

• Check if there’s any significant drop for specific keywords. This should be easy since Penguin skims through the pages. Don’t just check the homepage. Check your analytics and webmaster tool accounts to determine if you have lost any traffic or impressions for specific keywords.

• Run a full Majestic SEO report so you can look through your backlinks.

• Check for any disappearing page. Google doesn’t want to send users to a page that is inactive. Your site may have been having technical hosting problems, and if it happens when Google is trying to crawl your page, it is likely to declare it dead or inactive. This can be a serious problem if your site is de-indexed even if it shouldn’t be re-indexing can take really long time.

• Page too difficult to navigate. Your site will get deindexed if users keep clicking the page back button to get off the site. You should make your page easy to maneuver and simple.

• Duplication. De-indexing is almost a cinch if your site is one of those sub-shopping sites which offer what other sites are already offering. Google hates duplicate contents and if your site has such pages, you’re on your way to getting penalized.

• Viruses and Malware. The biggest culprit could be autoblogging of content and so is unknowingly hosting virus and malware sites.

• Technical Problems. Google’s ability to crawl and index your site may be caused by a robots.txt file that is blocking Google. To index the site, Google needs to have access on the site.

Another possible scenario could be that you have not been de-indexed by Penguin 2.0 but penalized. This means that your site is manually reviewed by a Google Search Quality Engineer and found your site to violate certain Google Webmaster Guidelines. Your site should show up if you try to search “yourdomain.com”  or www.yourdomain.com. If it doesn’t show up, then there could be other problems to your site which you need to check against.

The post How to Know if You’ve Been Hit by Penguin appeared first on Outsource Force.