Emarketed: October 2018

Monday, 29 October 2018

How to Optimize Your Website for Voice Search

Voice search is growing rapidly as a more popular option for finding information online and it not likely to slow down.

People prefer the easy hands-free option of voice search so it is crucial for marketers to consider these types of searches in the way that they approach optimization. It is possible for marketers to use SEO methods and other optimization tools to ensure that their company appears in the results of a voice search.

An important thing to keep in mind when optimizing is that the way people pose questions and use keywords with voice search is often very different than typing out a query. Understanding why and how voice search usually occurs can help you gain insight into the best ways to optimize. Specific voice queries may be more likely to be useful in directing people to your business in the results.

SEO professionals have been discovering new strategies to make use of voice search in a way that will boost a website’s rank. The ease with which people can ask questions on the go using voice search has made it beneficial for SEO marketers to get a website to appear more frequently. With voice search someone can quickly and easily find your business right when they are ready to make a purchase.

Differences in Voice Search

When people type in a search either on a computer or a phone they tend to use more succinct language. They might type in about one to three words that quickly identify the main information that they are searching for such as “Mexican restaurant LA”. With voice search it tends to be more conversational in tone since people don’t need to save time when typing and they often use more words and longer phrases.

A voice search might take the form of an actual question rather than just a couple of keywords such as “What is the best Mexican restaurant in LA?” Conversational phrases can be included in SEO strategies in order to get better results in voice search rather than focusing on short keywords.

Understanding the way that people use voice search and what takes place when it is used can help you come up with better optimization strategies.

Another aspect of voice search that makes it different from traditional searches is that it typically focuses on local results for specific items or places that people are looking for. When someone performs a voice search they often want to take immediate action because they are on the go or need to buy something. When typing a search into a computer the user is more often looking to read longer material and research a topic before they decide to make a purchase.

The type of content used to optimize voice search will work best if it is local and brief to help people make a quick decision to purchase from you. They often won’t be reading long articles or clicking through many different sites when using voice search so concise information that provides them a solution is the most effective. Reaching users when they are looking for local businesses can ensure that you are taking advantage of the possibilities of voice search.

Although traditional, computer-based searches are still important for optimization every marketer needs to familiarize themselves with voice search. If you are not optimizing for voice search then you are missing out on a great opportunity to reach customers who are looking for a business like yours. Balancing optimization for both voice search and typed searches can give you a more well-rounded marketing campaign.

The post How to Optimize Your Website for Voice Search appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/optimize-website-for-voice-search/

6 Reasons to Consider Using Podcasts to Grow Your Business – And How to Do It

6 Reasons to Consider Using Podcasts to Grow Your Business - And How to Do It

When most businesses launch, they usually have a strategy in mind – go the traditional awareness way and then, leverage social media.

Whenever they’ve exhausted all options and ask me what next to do though, I find out that many of them are yet to explore the sheer opportunities provided by podcasts. This is a very shocking development for many reasons.

For one, 49% of Americans (aged 12 and above) admit to knowing what a podcast is, and no less than 33% of them have listened to at least one before. The numbers get more interesting when you find out that some 65% of listeners have purchased something promoted on a podcast than elsewhere.

It is thus a wonder why marketers who spent a paltry $90 million in podcasts ads as at 2014 are now projected to spend more than $400 million by next year (2019).

But then, even if these podcasts are recording such amazing numbers, how do they help your business?

1 Higher Engagement Rates

The thing with other forms of marketing (website, Facebook, twitter, etc.) is that you have to always get in front of your audience with new content. That is not the same with podcasting as you can keep them engaged without their visiting your site at all.

Anytime you drop a new podcast, it is automatically downloaded to the consumer’s favorite device. Given that the average American spends 25% of their total audio time on podcasts too, that means better results for you.

2 Low Entry Barriers

Podcasting is one of those forms of outreach that you can start with little to no experience. People out there are podcasting just for the fun of it, and businesses are getting in on the trend too.

Software and hardware requirements are equally not overwhelming. You can even scale up as you go higher in your business.

If you still want things done professionally, you won’t have to break the bank. You can find a handful of good Phoenix sound mixers to help you take your podcast from an amateurish level to that professional audio output level you desire – in no time, and at not much cost.

3 Brand awareness

If I haven’t already mentioned this, podcasting is one of the most natural ways to drive quality organic traffic to your website. With the amount of engagement the platform brings, there is no doubt about it being one of the unique ways through which you can spread your brand awareness further.

Podcasts can also be shared on different distribution platforms. This allows you put your podcast onto more visible sharing platforms. From here, all roads lead to a greater brand visibility.

4 Passive Consumption

Have you ever thought about how busy your audience might be? Not all of them, but quite a handful of them?

These ones might not have the time or patience to browse through your website content or social media updates, but they can always consume your podcasts passively. That opens up a new market for you with such people, allowing you to break into their own space.

5 Highly Effective

All of these benefits of podcasts would mean nothing if they didn’t hold any promise for your business. That is why it is important to reiterate how 63% of podcast listeners claimed to have bought something that was advertised to them.

It is also important to note that up to 88% of all those who are subscribed to your podcasts will listen to everything you have to say. By everything, I mean every episode too.

I might be wrong, but tell me any other platform currently offering such an engagement rate.

6 Audience Availability

Every business needs an audience to survive.

On the iTunes podcasting section alone, there are more than 1 billion total subscribers within your reach. Castbox and Podcast Republic might not be as large, but they offer you some 5 million subscribers too. Yet another platform is Podbean which brings on board an addition 1 million subscriber market.

Considering how even the top three social media networks can’t add up to give you such numbers, it is not rocket science why podcasting should be atop your business marketing agenda.

Getting started with podcasting

Like I said earlier, getting into podcasting for your business is not capital intensive at all. However, I suggest getting it done right, even if it means bringing professionals into the loop.

The best place to start would be by looking around your neighborhood for such professionals.

There are a couple of great Phoenix podcast recording studios that you can book sessions with to get your audio content out there. These studios not only offer you state-of -the-art equipment to make your content delivery better, but guidance and direction too.

You would also want to look for a great sound mixer to ensure everything you say is as crisp as possible. Fact is, a sound mixer should come as part of the deal when you’ve landed a great recording studio already.

Conclusion

The numbers are there. The platform is there. The tools are there.

Now that you know just how important podcasts can be to your business, why wait? If you ask me, the best time to have started podcasting is yesterday.

The market is still fresh – break in and scale your brand better!

The post 6 Reasons to Consider Using Podcasts to Grow Your Business – And How to Do It appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/podcasts-grow-your-business/

Tuesday, 23 October 2018

Is Your Content Dying to Be Engaged?

One of the the key elements that marketers focus on is creating high quality content that will keep people interested in their brand. But another crucial factor in marketing success is also getting higher levels of engagement on your content. How do you get more users to interact with and respond to the content that you share?

The content that you write for blogs or post on social media can get more comments, likes and shares if you think of angles that will make people feel involved. This could mean writing about debatable topics or asking for users opinions about things so that they are more likely to chime in. You can ask a question, have people compare two options or open up a friendly non-offensive discussion.

Another strategy to take in order to increase engagement is to use relatable humor, surprising facts or interesting stories to get people to respond to your posts. Content that has these qualities tends to get shared more often because users are hoping to get others to respond. It is a good idea to know your audience and what type of humor or stories will be relatable and interesting to them.

Appealing graphics and images are also a simple way to attract more attention and encourage more engagement with your content. If you are posting a blog then incorporating some infographics, screenshots or images of your products can help illustrate the topic you are discussing. Social media posts with colorful and attractive images tend to get more attention and engagement from followers.

Video can be just as effective a tool as images so make sure to incorporate some short video clips on your blog or social media profile. Using a variety of different strategies to increase engagement can lead to building more popular content online.

The post Is Your Content Dying to Be Engaged? appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/engaging-content/

Which Website Builder is Right for Me?

There are plenty of different tools available to help people create their own websites without having to have any special coding knowledge. The most commonly used options are WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or Weebly which all offer options for creating a custom site. But how do you know which one will work best for the type of website you want to design?

One of the most important things to consider when choosing a website builder is what you are willing to spend in order to make your site. There are plenty of cheap or even free options for creating a site but they may not as secure, easy to use or have as many design capabilities. For personal blogs or a freelance type of business like photography, a cheap or free option like Squarespace may be the best choice.

For a small but more established business, most people choose WordPress because it is very user friendly, has many more design options to create a unique site and it is also more search engine friendly. It is a little more costly than other options but it offers many benefits that small businesses tend to prefer if they want more professional looking website. Because of its wider spectrum of design capabilities, WordPress sites are easier to customize and create the exact look and function that you want.

For someone looking to create just a basic website that they can use Squarespace for free or upgrade to the business plan for a small monthly fee. Wix and Weebly have very cheap basic options as well. The cost of creating your website will depend on the type of services you need as you choose from the different plans available.

Anyone can create their own website but finding the right builder depends mainly on your individual business needs and your site budget.

The post Which Website Builder is Right for Me? appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/best-website-builder/

Monday, 22 October 2018

Getting Started with Micro-Video Content Creation

Video marketing has become a more integral part of a business’ overall advertising strategy as the popularity of video continues to grow online. People tend to seek out video to find information and also remember video more easily than other types of content. Powerful companies are now using micro-video content to engage users and increase brand recognition.

A micro-video is a essentially a short video clip aimed at retaining people’s attention by keeping the content brief. A micro-video might only be about 15-30 seconds long but contains valuable marketing information that the user is more likely to remember. People will usually watch the whole video, understand the message and be more inclined to engage with your business.

When it comes to creating micro-video content it is important to have a goal in mind such as brand awareness, customer retention or increasing engagement. You can then choose a type of video that will help you reach your goal such as GIF, animated video or simply a short clip. GIFs can be effective for creating something humorous or showcasing products with an eye-catching animation of them.

A video with real footage may be useful in introducing a new product and including important information about it that you want to share. For a real video clip you need to write a script if you plan to have narration or dialogue. In some cases you may just want to use background music along with compelling images and text.

Make sure to use some good quality equipment for your video including a nice camera and audio recording tools. A better quality video is likely to get more engagement especially if it has high quality audio rather than a smartphone microphone. Once you have shot, edited and uploaded your micro-video you can post and promote it on social media where you will start to see more engagement.

The post Getting Started with Micro-Video Content Creation appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/micro-video-content-creation/

Thursday, 18 October 2018

How To Choose The Right SEO Agency For You

One study conducted in 2014 found that the first page of Google gets 95% of web traffic and that 67% of users go for one of the first five results on the first page.

Would you like your business to be on the first page and have a higher chance of attracting high-quality traffic? If you answered yes, then you need to find an SEO agency with the kind of expertise that will push your rankings forward.

In today’s age of competitive business, buying goods and services is quite tasking because there are a plethora of options available on the market. You are likely to face this challenge when choosing an SEO agency and the chances are that you might end up selecting an agency that does its marketing well but fall short with its services. If you are deciding to choose an agency to do your SEO, here’s what you need to do to get the best.

Check how long an agency has been operating

What experience does every agency you are looking into have? If an agency has been in the industry for long, then it has weathered several storms, and it is in a position to improve your rankings. New SEO agencies might know how to do SEO, but they might not be able to adapt to the ever-changing SEO requirements quickly. However, you should not discredit all new SEO agencies because some employ experts who can do the job as well as those in older agencies.

When looking at the longevity in business, you also need to check if an agency has worked with both small and big companies. If they have worked successfully with both, you can trust them because they aren’t just masters of one talent.

Gauge portfolios

Before making your final decision, you ought to compare the portfolios of several SEO agencies. If you go through their websites, you are likely to find a list of businesses that they have worked with in the past, though some might want to remain anonymous. If there is no list on the website, that’s a red flag.

An agency’s portfolio shows you the kind of businesses it serves which in turn helps you identify if it works with businesses in your niche. For instance, if you sell shoes online and the agency has worked with lots of online stores, then that’s a good sign that it can get the job done for you. Moreover, if an agency has worked with a variety of businesses, it shows that it is versatile and can adapt quickly.

Examine your goals

Your SEO strategy should have a goal at the end, for example, increase social shares by 5% quarterly. The figures of your goals should be tangible, reasonable, and attainable, keeping in mind that SEO is a field that does not achieve results overnight. That said, a good SEO agency is one that puts your goals and objectives first. Hence’ if you come across an agency that wants to begin working right away without knowing what you want to achieve, run! More importantly, the practices and goals of an ideal agency should mirror yours, so that you are always on the same page and working towards the same results.

Look for proven results

Research is pivotal when looking for an SEO agency. One of the things you need to look for before arriving at a decision is proven results. Are an agency’s past clients and employees satisfied with its services? You can get trustworthy reviews from an agency’s website.

Another great way to get unbiased opinions is to look at reviews left by previous customers on Google or Yelp. Alternatively, you can contact several past clients who have worked with a said agency to find out if they achieved the results they wanted.

Ask questions

This is one of the most critical steps that will help you determine whether an agency understands what you want and if it is the best fit.

Ask questions about:

The processes the agency uses
The resources that they need from you
What steps you should take when things are not done correctly
Their communication and reporting process for the progress of the SEO strategy

Mistakes you should avoid making

Trusting search engines as filters

The first step toward getting an agency is conducting some research, mostly via Google. When you search the best SEO agencies in your location, you’ll get some results, which you should take with a pinch salt. The best companies are busy and overwhelmed by new and retained clients. Hence they might not have all the time to do good SEO for their websites and appear on the first page on SERPs.

Believing there’s a secret method

One of the hugest red flags is agencies that tell you they have a secret SEO formula that will improve your ranking. This might have been the case a few years back but nowadays, SEO is an open field, and no one has a secret process.

Following the processes discussed above will land you an agency that does the best SEO and adapts to change quickly. For more information about SEO agencies, visit https://serpbook.com/blog/agency-rank-tracker/.

The post How To Choose The Right SEO Agency For You appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/the-right-seo-agency-for-you/

3 Remarkable PPC Studies From 2018

In the PPC business, data makes the world go ‘round. Things can change in the blink of an eye, but the good news is that results can be measured easily through hard data. The problem is, that data is not always readily available. Many companies hoard the data from their PPC case studies or put it behind paywalls, and with good reason. The data on good PPC ads can give an important edge over the competition.

All that being said, however, you needn’t worry. Push Group an award winning London based PPC agency stays up to date on all the cutting edge research being done in the world of PPC ads.

They’ve tracked down three remarkable PPC studies that took place in 2018, all with interesting and important data from the latest in this field.

1. This case study on how to get a good quality score

This study focused on using the AdWords performance grader to find what the common characteristics were in a high quality score account. It found that these accounts had five shared characteristics: good click-through rates, high use of long-tail keywords, ad text optimization that was ongoing, a high amount of dedicated account activity, and perfectly following best practices.

This is important because it shows us what work realistically needs to go into getting a high quality score, which makes a big differences in PPC campaigns. Our agency is dedicated to staying up to date on these best practices. With a good quality score, a company’s cost per click can be greatly reduced, resulting in more benefit for less money.

2. This study done on the company Orangeries UK

Studies done on PPC campaigns for specific companies can tell us a lot. In this case, Orangeries UK was suffering from “no organic position, poor enquiry volumes, poor conversion rates, [and an] expensive adwords campaign.” The company that they approached to run their PPC campaign put several strategies into action that were ultimately successful in improving the PPC campaign and saving Orangeries UK money that they were able to put towards other areas.

To do this, the ad agency “designed a new, fast loading, responsive website”. In addition to that, they also put effort into integrating new keywords, as well as installing advanced tracking code.

With these and other techniques, they found they were able to improve traffic a whopping 2115% over less than a year, with 300 unique visitors a day. They also increased lead, improved conversion rate and quality score, and reduced the amount that Orangeries UK had to spend on PPC. Great results!

3. This one done on PPC for MF Fire

MF Fire is something of a niche company, designing and engineering fire products through the latest science. One of their crowns is the Catalyst, “the world’s first and only smart and efficient in-home wood burning stove.” The problem was, being the world’s first there was not a lot of awareness about this product. MF Fire needed to communicate to customers what the product was and how they could benefit from it.

The marketing company developed four key search terms that drew more traffic to the site. Once they had those terms, they created one more landing page to catch traffic with more general searches like “best wood stove”. Then they were able to launch a remarketing strategy that focused on ads to customers targeted by which landing page they had visited.

This strategy had a huge impact for the company, resulting in a greater online presence as well as a 267% increase in PPC traffic, a 59% increase in branded traffic, a 23% decrease in bounce rate, and a 170% increase in total conversions.

The right PPC strategy can truly make a huge difference in PPC spending, as well as web presence and overall sales.

The post 3 Remarkable PPC Studies From 2018 appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/3-remarkable-ppc-studies-2018/

Monday, 15 October 2018

Make Your Instagram Stories Even Better with These Apps

Instagram stories are a great way to reach followers with important information or create ads that help increase engagement. There are certain strategies and tools available that can make your instagram stories more effective at building awareness and attracting attention from potential customers. You can use apps to enhance your stories and make them more appealing to followers.

An eye-catching option is to add animated text and creative overlays to your photos and videos using third-party apps like Adobe Spark Post. This is a free design app that allows you to add effects and different types of overlays to your posts to make them animated videos. You can choose from various themes, fonts and colors to create an interesting design that will make your story more memorable.

Another app that can be useful for Instagram stories is the InShot app which helps with sizing issues if you don’t have a vertical video. The free app can convert a video from any type of aspect ratio into the right vertical ratio for stories with background margins that you can customize using different colors or a blurred effect. Other options like PicPlayPost allow you to create vertical collages or vertical slideshows using multiple photos.

There are many options for editing apps that can help you create clips for videos like Videoshop or Filmmaker pro. These apps make it possible to put together multiple clips, resize them, edit them and add text. Video stories with several clips can help businesses communicate more information in one single story.

Enhancing stories with these types of apps can make them look more professional and help you boost engagement with more interesting content. Businesses can benefit from putting some thought and effort into their Instagram stories so that followers look forward to viewing more.

The post Make Your Instagram Stories Even Better with These Apps appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/instagram-stories-editing-apps/

Small Business and Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding can be a powerful fundraising tool for personal projects, startups and small businesses who need some financing help. It allows people to seek funds online as a loan for their company that they will pay back with interest over time. People may choose to invest in certain crowdfunds to make a profit while supporting a small business.

One of the reasons businesses choose crowdfunding as a way to obtain loans is that they are often more flexible than bank loans. Getting a loan from a bank can be more complex with a long application process and stricter rules about what the funds can be used for. With crowdfunding it can be easier to apply depending on the website used and businesses have more freedom with their funds.

There are two main types of crowdfunding known as reward crowdfunding and equity crowdfunding. Reward crowdfunding is a way to provide incentives for people to donate their money online such as VIP access, discounts, new versions of products or other rewards. Equity crowdfunding allows investors to provide money in exchange for shares in the company.

The most popular websites used for crowdfunding include Kickstarter which was one of the first reward crowdfunding platforms and is a great option for funding creative projects like films, video games or recording. Another commonly used crowdfunding site is GoFundMe which is one of the largest fundraising platforms with a community of over 50 million donors. These kinds of sites tend to charge processing fees and 5 percent of all funds raised to use their platform.

If you are considering using a crowdfunding platform for your small business it is important to keep in mind that you will need to a marketing plan in place in order to achieve your goal. Overall, crowdfunding can be a useful choice for businesses who need new resources for financial support.

The post Small Business and Crowdfunding appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/small-business-and-crowdfunding/

How Does Social Media Assist SEO?

You may not realize how much social media actually assists with SEO Essex. Many of us just think of it as a platform for people to post selfies, updates of their life, and to stay in contact with their friends; however social media plays many more roles than we originally anticipated, including assisting SEO. Let’s take a closer look at how social media impacts SEO.

Brand Awareness

Many marketers believe that the links from your social accounts, such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, has an impact on the ranking of your site. By using social influencers, who use social media more than anyone else, they can post your content with links to your site through their channels or blogs. This link building is a very beneficial way to increase brand awareness through social media.

Social Media Profiles

Potentially, your company already has a social media profile account on various different social media platforms. If you do, this is great, as your social profiles influence the content of your search results. Due to social media profiles having a more personal feel to them, as people can relate to them by having their own profiles, they are a great way to get the personality and tone of your company across to potential clients and customers. You will find that your Twitter or Facebook page will get just as many clicks, possibly even more, than your actual site. So, if you don’t already have a social media profile, make an account, today!

Social Media Is Used As A Search Engine

Not only do people search for things on Google, but they also use social media channels, such as Twitter. People are likely to look up any of your company’s latest news or check out your business through your social media channel, so it is important that you have a clear, and up-to-date social profile, online. Search engine optimisation now includes what is searched on social media, not just through original search engines, such as Google.

More Engagement

Social media encourages more engagement form your users, which is a great way to improve your site’s SEO. If the content on your company’s social media profile is shared, it doesn’t necessarily have an impact on your ranking on Google, however, the engagement from your shared content will assist your SEO.

Engagement online is a great way to improve your reputation online, in addition to it being a way to generate leads for your company.

Google And Twitter’s Partnership

Although we aren’t entirely sure what the relationship between Google and Twitter means for the future of search and social marketing, we do know that we have regularly seen relevant tweets for branded searches in Google’s search results.

Twitter posts appearing in the search results, unfortunately don’t assist your site’s SEO – but it will have an impact on your brand awareness.

Taking all of these points into consideration, social media does assist SEO in ways that you may not have originally thought of. Having social media accounts for your company/business is a really beneficial move to make, as it will improve the traffic that visits your site, through visiting your social profile first.

The post How Does Social Media Assist SEO? appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/how-social-media-assists-seo/

Wednesday, 10 October 2018

You Can Still Get to the Top of Search Results

Some of the theories behind SEO can make it seem impossible to succeed in getting a higher rank. The idea that sites with more backlinks rank higher and sites with a higher rank tend to get more backlinks seems like a difficult world to break into. Top ranking sites tend to earn backlinks at a much faster rate than lower ranking sites which in turn continues to establish their rank.

How can lower ranking sites move up in search results if they are not getting backlinks as quickly as top sites? Even though it may seem like a vicious cycle, studies have shown that there actually is no proof that getting links at a faster rate leads to a better ranking. This proves that backlinks are not the only answer to getting results from SEO.

There are many cases where sites are able to improve their rank simply by having high quality content rather than focusing on building backlinks. The most important aspects of a site or article is that they are informational, authoritative and offer comprehensive knowledge. High quality content has the same potential to increase search rank than an article with a lots of backlinks.

Google still ranks content based on its quality above all else and if users spend time reading your content because it proves useful in answering your questions than this will serve to increase your rank. Content with original research and new information will perform better than more cursory content. Improving your “dwell time” or the amount of time that users spend on your site can be one of the key factors in increasing your rank.

Backlinks still matter but if you are having trouble with getting enough of them to affect your rank it may be time to focus on creating high quality content that people will keep coming back to.

The post You Can Still Get to the Top of Search Results appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/top-of-search/

Alexa, Grow My Business Online

The voice-activated digital assistant created by Amazon known as Alexa, has powerful potential not only to make the average person’s life easier but to help businesses in a number of ways. The growing popularity of Alexa is changing the way that people receive their information which can have a great impact on businesses. Using Alexa can streamline your business processes and also make it possible for you to connect and interact with customers on a deeper level.

Alexa has a number of features that can help businesses become more organized, speed up simple tasks and collaborate on marketing campaigns. Tools like Alexa’s email assistant and scheduling assistant can help make email marketing and other campaigns more streamlined. They allow you to connect with email accounts, search for data, coordinate meetings and schedule events so that everyone in your company can be on the same page for a campaign.

The voice assistant also has some features that make it possible for small businesses to connect with customers when they search for specific information. For example Alexa now has a feature called “skills recommendations” that provides users with information to help them accomplish a skill. Businesses can show up in the results for these inquiries as an option to help with their question.

Now Alexa also includes notifications which can offer a way for businesses to interact with customers by giving them updates even when they aren’t searching for something. Businesses can utilize these features in order to provide customers with valuable information that could potentially lead to more engagement and purchases. When customers find you through Alexa you can develop a more personalized interaction with them through the voice system.

Digital assistants like Alexa ultimately can be useful both as a business tool and an opportunity to advertise online and reach a new audience.

The post Alexa, Grow My Business Online appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/alexa-grow-my-business-online/

Monday, 1 October 2018

Compressing Video Files – What You Need to Know

How to Compress Videos

Raw and uncompressed video files can be extremely large, and it isn’t uncommon for HD raw videos to require a few gigabytes for each minute. Needless to say managing files of such sizes isn’t easy, let alone transferring them or uploading them to online servers.

The first thing that you should know is that because uncompressed raw videos are so large – most of the video files that you encounter are probably already compressed in some form or other. However in some cases they may still be too large, and you may want to compress them further to make them more manageable.

If that is your goal, you should start by understanding how the video format affects its compression.

Codecs and Compression

The video codec is the part of its format that determines the compression that it uses – which is why it is important that you know more about it. Some of the more common codecs nowadays include MPEG-4, H.264, and H.265.

Newer codecs tend to have better compression rates than older codecs, and are able to deliver the same quality of video at much smaller file sizes. For example the H.265 codec can reduce the file size of a H.264 video by up to 50% in some cases.

Suffice to say, if your video is in an older codec – you could significantly compress its file size without affecting its quality by transcoding it to a newer codec instead. The one caveat however is that newer codecs are often more limited when it comes to compatibility, so you’ll need to ensure that the device you want to watch the video on supports the codec.

If your video is already encoded in a new codec this may not be an option – but there are other ways to compress videos as well.

Video Bitrate

The video bitrate is literally the amount of data that the video uses each second, and so the video file size is its bitrate multiplied by its duration. By reducing the bitrate you will be able to compress and directly reduce the file size, but at the same time its quality could deteriorate and compression artifacts may appear.

Different videos require different bitrates in order for the video quality to be unaffected, and it varies depending on the resolution and framerate. As an example you could refer to YouTube’s recommended upload settings so you know what to expect.

Assuming you’re willing to compromise the quality of the video slightly however, you can reduce the bitrate to lower than its recommended settings. In short you will want to balance out the video quality against the file size of the video, and find a compromise that satisfies you on both counts.

How to Compress Videos

To start compressing videos using either of the methods described above, you will need software that allows you to convert and transcode videos. Nowadays there are several tools that you can use that range from video converters to specialized video compressors. For example you could try Movavi Video Converter as a place to start.

Typically the first thing that you should do is identify the format (i.e. codec) that the video is using, and determine whether or not transcoding it to a newer codec with better compression is an option. If it isn’t, you can then try lowering the bitrate gradually while observing the affect it has on the video quality.

It should be noted that in some cases you may be able to reduce the file size of your videos through other means – such as by removing any unnecessary parts from the video. While technically that isn’t ‘compressing’ the video, it is an effective option that you should consider.

At the end of the day you should now know everything that you need to in order to compress your videos. All that remains is to try it out – and see how it works in practice.

The post Compressing Video Files – What You Need to Know appeared first on SEM Blog & News - SEO, PPC, Social, Marketing & More.

source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/compressing-video-files/