Here at Web Gnomes, we stay on top of the ever-changing world of Internet Marketing so you don’t have to. We enjoy learning new tricks of the trade and putting them to practice in the work that we do for our esteemed clients. Here is some of the most helpful Internet marketing info we came across this week:
12 New Year’s Marketing Resolutions You Can Actually Keep
Hubspot brings us twelve marketing resolutions to improve your marketing strategy. (We *love* that you can tweet each resolution!)
- I resolve to build a killer keyword strategy and get my business to rank higher in Google organic search results. (That’s a good one…)
- I resolve to build more inbound links into my website to really rock my off-page SEO. (Links do rock!)
- I resolve to take advantage of my business blog as a lead gen tool by writing tons more awesome, educational posts. (In progress!)
- I resolve to put super attractive calls-to-action in my blog posts, emails sends, and – well – almost anywhere else. (People do respond to call-to-actions.)
- I resolve to build stronger relationships with my prospects by engaging with them more in social media (Remember the key is to Listen…)
- I resolve to optimize my website for mobile and learn more about how to make the most of mobile marketing. (Do it now before your competitors catch on!)
- I resolve to build some seriously stunning landing pages and optimize them for converting more visitors into leads. (Landing pages are cool…)
- I resolve to generate more leads for my sales team so we can get some crazy lead-to-customer conversion going. (Ehm – yes!)
- I resolve to make my lead nurturing campaigns more personal and relevant because, hey, my emails deserve to be read. (50% of leads are not ready to buy…)
- I resolve to experiment with marketing automation and use it to provide helpful content, not sales pitches or spam. (Did somebody say autoresponder?)
- I resolve to A/B test my landing pages and email campaigns like a pro and keep finding new ways to optimize them. (It will be worth your while!)
- I resolve to track my analytics closely and use them to make data-driven decisions to improve my marketing strategy. (Am I the only person who goes to Google Analytics before Facebook in the morning? Done!)
Let us know in the comments which resolutions you intend to keep!
All About Anchor Text – Whiteboard Friday
As you know, I L-O-V-E SEOmoz’s Whiteboard Friday. These videos are always full of useful, actionable advice. This week, it’s all about anchor text. Here’s the summary (but do watch the video – it’s simply delicious!):
- Multiple anchors from the same page do NOT provide more value.
- Diversity of anchor text links provides the strongest benefit. (I.e. anchor text from multiple domains.)
- Fluctuating the anchor text itself is debatable – it should come naturally (otherwise you’re probably using your black hat…).
- The first anchor text in the HTML of a page is what Google counts.
- Internal anchor text helps a tiny big; external anchor text helps a lot.
- If a link uses an image, the alt attribute becomes the anchor text (usually).
- Surrounding text is likely used as a signal, especially if the anchor itself doesn’t have much value/context.
The third bullet is interesting, since there was another Whiteboard Friday talking about how you should make sure your anchor text is not exactly the same all over the web. I think Rand hesitates to provide this as a best practice, because it’s more likely to be necessary for people using shady (black hat) techniques. Makes sense!
SEO Pricing: 600+ Agencies Share Costs of Services & Pricing Models
Ever wondered if your SEO is ripping you off? Here are the results of a recent study by SEOmoz (inforgraphic by AYTM) on what and how SEOs charge for their services. You can also get more information by clicking the link to SEOmoz’s original post above. Enjoy!
