Social Media Brand Health Check

PPC Model

PPC is an internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites in which advertisers pay the publisher when the ad is clicked.
-Wikipedia

When a user clicked on the ad, the click is registered in a system and pre-determined charge is assessed.as in SEO the purpose of PPC is to be seen first.

This method is more accurate than SEO but advertisers should be very careful when selecting key words. Using more common and short key words will increase cost and will not be very accurate.

Let’s try finding a keyword “Sony mobile phones in Sri Lanka”

The results that are showed in the pink box are the paid ads. They appear first in the search result.

The most popular advertising network is Google adwords. When you go to google adwords and typed the key word as sony mobile phones in Sri Lanka in key word tool you can find out information regarding competition, global monthly searches, local monthly searches etc.






You can refer to this blog if you need further understanding ruchira's blog

All about SEO!

What are search engines?

Search engines are programs that search documents for specified keywords and return a list of the documents where the keywords were found. A search engine is really a general class of programs; however, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google, Bing and Yahoo! Search that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web.
-Webopedia.

What is Search engine optimization?

Search engine optimization is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) -- including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.
-Webopedia.

Each and every site holder will need their website to appear in the top lists
SEO helps site holders by ensuring the site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site is found in the search engine.it improves the site and saves time.

For example, let’s assume I am carrying out a business that promotes and sells customized t-shirts.

So if anybody wants to get the service will surf through internet to find out the best alternative, so he/she will search under customized t-shirts. At the moment he/she start searching it will appear thousands of suggestions under the name customized t-shirts. So there is a very little chance that person will visit my site among all of them. Here SEO comes to action. What SEO actually does is making some adjustments to the html of individual web pages to achieve a high search engine ranking. There are keywords or META tags that including a brief about our site and it helps to distinguish my site from others and finally boost the ranking in search engines.

But webmasters should be very careful when selecting a SEO. They should basically do some kind of analysis what that particular SEO’s previous work, were they successful, their experience in the industry that we are in, how long they have been in the industry and their reputation and so on. Otherwise this will damage our company’s reputation and ultimately lead to a failure.

SEO can be discussed under two topics that are black hat SEO and white hat SEO.

Black hat SEO is use of aggressive marketing and techniques not adhere to SEO rules and regulations etc. This will ultimately result in the particular web site getting banned.
Example for black hat SEO-doorway pages that are loaded with key words

White hat SEO is use of strategies and techniques that follow the SEO rules and regulations.
Examples- using key words, link building etc.

Website Usability Checklist

The website that I selected is buyabans.com, that is the online purchasing gateway for the well- reputed organization,  Abans ( Pvt) ltd Sri Lanka. This is an online shopping store which sells electronics and home appliances.

Website usability checklist http://www.buyabans.com/

Accessibility

Site load time in this website is reasonable .It took only a few seconds to get all the content loaded.

The text in the background is clear and easy to read. Background color they have used is white that is common in websites. And the normal font size is quite smaller compared to other sites but readable. The normal font colors that have used are black and light blue and there are some texts that have been highlighted using red color. Different font sizes have used where appropriate. The content is clear and attractive .Flash and ad-ons do not really disturb the viewer. The site does not have custom not-found 404/ page.

Identity

Company logo cannot be found at a glance. The site has given the priority to the site name and logo instead company logo. Since the company name is included in the site name it doesn’t really create a big problem. The brands available under the company are mentioned with the logos. There is a clear path to company information and contact information.

Navigation

Main navigation is easily identifiable it can be seen at the top of the page. Navigation labels are clear and concise. Number of buttons/links is reasonable, lot of information has  provided under each link .the content in the home page is clear since details are provided under different titles so only the ones who actually need to see that information can click on those links and see it. Links to partner sites have put in the bottom of the site. Links are consistent and easy to identify. Site search is easy to access.

Content

Major headings are clear and descriptive but there are some important information they have put them in the bottom of the page and the colors that have used there are not eye catching as such there is a chance that viewers may not see these information. Styles and colors are consistent they have limited to main four colors those are white, blue, black and red which go with their logo as well. Emphasis (bold, etc. ) used sparingly, special offers, discounts etc. have  mentioned in bold. There are no pop up messages in the site. The URL they have used is,buyabans.com which is very meaningful and has included the company name too.html page titles are explanatory.

What is Interruption Marketing?

Marketing that interrupts what you are doing.It is kind of an annoying stuff that nobody really wants to see.

It is a push marketing method where somebody puts something on you without your permission to get your attention anyhow.

The purpose of interruption marketing is, try to communicate some message when and where possible. This means the message must be short and to the point. It should be attractive enough to get busy people stop for a while and make sense.

Examples for Interruption Marketing

TV advertisements that put while watching a movie or teledrama

Radio advertisements

Videos that automatically starts when you go to a new website

Flashy banners

E-mail marketing

Although the interruption marketing interrupts, there is a possibility that interruption marketing gets positive results. If your message can attract the person who is receiving it at a glance he would prefer searching more, read the whole content and would like to learn more regarding that. At least you can make people aware of your existence expecting that in some future day they will refer it or share it with someone who has the need.

In interruption marketing concept, no matter how powerful the media is, it is the message that ensures your success.

What is Permission Marketing?

Permission marketing is an approach to selling goods and services in which a prospect explicitly agrees in advance to receive marketing information.

Eg;- websites

 It is an effective method of communication because the prospect is more receptive to a message that has been requested in advance. And it is more cost efficient because the prospect is already identified and targeted.

Here, consumers empower marketers to send them promotional messages in certain interest categories. This can help marketers to address each individual customer separately. the aim is to customize the marketing mix in accordance with the needs of the customer and build long term relationships with the customer.The emphasis is more on retaining the existing customers rather than on obtaining new ones.

Another advantage of permission marketing is, marketers get an audience interested in their message and customer gets fewer messages and only the ones that they are interested in receiving. In a world of information overload, automated telemarketing and spam, most people would welcome the idea of permission marketing instead of interruption marketing.  

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