What is Brand Bidding?

Companies involved in pay per click advertising may be familiar with the term brand bidding for certain search terms. Brand bidding means that marketers who are purchasing ads for search terms on Google bid on the brand terms of a third party. Essentially it means that your company’s website will appear when the user searches for a bigger brand name.

The concept behind brand bidding is that smaller, less known companies can get more traffic by being associated with more popular brands in the same industry. If a small, local shoe company bids on brand terms like “Nike”, for example, then their website will appear in search results and users might click on it during their search. The goal in brand bidding is diverting user attention to choose or at least become more familiar with a similar brand to the one they are searching.

Certain brands may not authorize other companies to bid on their brand name and only allow a group of affiliates to bid so that traffic is directed to approved pages. This can help block out certain bidders which may divert traffic away from them with their brand bidding practices. Technically brand bidding is allowed by Google and some companies have to be very vigilant to prevent it from affecting their traffic.

For the companies that allow brand bidding or simply ignore it, smaller brands can take advantage of using their notoriety to get better results from pay per click advertising. Bidding on specific brand names can result in a higher rank and more traffic overall. Most importantly, there is little risk involved since you only pay when users click through to your website.

Brand bidding may be threatening to some bigger brands but it can prove beneficial for unknown brands that want to increase their visibility.

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source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/what-is-brand-bidding/

Dealing with Fake Reviews

Small businesses often have to deal with annoyance of reviews on their Google business page, Yelp or other site that are fake, negative reviews with low ratings. When someone owns a small company it can be obvious to them when someone writes a review that was not a client. Random people on the internet, disgruntled employees or other competitors may make fake profiles simply to post negative reviews of a business that they have had no interaction with.

Unfortunately it can be a bit challenging to prove to Google that those reviews are not valid in order to have them removed. You will need to carefully monitor your reviews and be able to make a case as to why they aren’t valid. Even though you may know for certain that these people were never customers, you need to be able to show Google, Yelp, Facebook or other websites that these profiles are fake and not legitimate complaints.

If the reviews don’t comply with community standards, the reviewer has a clear conflict of interest, they included profane language or if they are impersonating someone else then the website might remove them. There is no guarantee that the review will be removed but it can be worth trying to contact the website if you know for certain that the review is false. If you can’t get it removed, sometimes it can be helpful to write a response to the review and address their complaints politely so that other users can see both sides of the situation.

If negative reviews are a problem, often the best way to combat them is to work to attract more positive reviews so that they negative ones are less noticeable. Getting more consistently positive reviews on the page will eventually make the negative ones seem questionable to users.

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source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/dealing-with-fake-reviews/

4 Old SEO Tactics that Will Retain Their Value in 2019

2019 is on top of us,and everything is bragging about the changes it will bring. The story is no different when it comes to the online marketplace, especially SEO.

But apart from the changes, its time we discuss some tried and tested methods that will retain their relevance this year as well. So, following we will discuss some old SEO tactics, you shouldn’t leave behind.

1. Featured Snippet

The new year will bring its changes, but you can’t overlook some proven tactics. Featured Snippets will remain strong in the upcoming year as well. These are the condensed clips of information where are placed on top of SERP.

These provide search engine users with a summary of content along with the link to their website. They take more than 10% of organic traffic. This is why you must curate your content accordingly.

There ware more likely the short answer to long tail searches. If done right, they have a major and positive impact on your reader’s user experience. The search engine users are tempted to lookright for their snippets instead of below results. You need to benefit from this by carefully putting together your data and content. It helps to keep your content to the point.

2. Mobile

For years, we have been seeing Mobileoptimization in new year SEO trends. We hate to admit that 2019 will be no different. Yes, there are some major changes introduced in the marketplace, and you must accommodate them if you want to stay in the picture.

Mobile search has surpasseddesktop search, and Voice Base search will take it to new heights. Google has already made a big move with Google Search along with every other brand introduce their own assistant recently.
But we expect the mobile search trend will reach new limits this year and it will be a major factor that will help your sites rank. Scottsdale SEO expert insists on implement a new strategy that will accommodate voice search.

3. Quality Content is Still Important

This is an age-old story; the quality of your content remains on top. If you want to succeed online, then you must make qualitative and relevant content, just avoid oversaturation of it. The fact is, people are selective about what they read, watch and explore.

Therefore, its imperative that you invest time and effort in your content. 2019 will be the year when we will see major implementations in Voice search, AI, personalized search and others. So, take them into account if you want to navigate through competitive waters.

4. Internal Links

Once you create good content, you will need to promote it. Therefore, you must link your content internally to other pages of your site. This means you will have to edit some old posts to include new links.

As you take care of that, you will have to focus on external links. These are the links you get from other websites. Google relies on external links to determine how good your post is. This makes sense as link building is important to rank higher.

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source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/4-old-seo-tactics-to-use-in-2019/

Basic YouTube SEO Optimization

Most businesses have begun to realize how crucial it is to use YouTube as part of a media marketing campaign. In addition to making lots of great video content, incorporating some optimization techniques can make your YouTube videos more effective through greater visibility in a search. SEO strategies can help ensure that your video comes up first, not only in a YouTube search but also through Google and other search engines.

YouTube allows users to manually add their own title, description and tags to make it easier for people to find your content. The first step in optimizing your video is using these options to your advantage so that you increase your visibility through the right keywords. You can use lots of keywords research to make sure you are adding the right terms that focus on user intent and make it more likely for them to find you.

Tags are important because they add keywords to your video and help classify the content. Make sure to only use relevant tags and avoid simply adding popular tags to make your video more visible. Picking the right thumbnail can also be helpful in appealing to users so make sure to pick an interesting image that shows your content is exactly what they are looking for.

Other advanced settings can also help improve visibility such as allowing embedding of your video. If your video can be embedded it means anyone can add it to their website which increases the rate at which it will be shared and viewed. Videos can also include a call to action so that the viewer can continue by clicking through to your website or other content you have created.

Part of optimizing means distributing your content as much as possible so that you can increase views and extend your reach. Make sure to share your videos on all social media to get better results.

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source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/basic-youtube-seo-optimization/

Slack VS 5 Alternatives

Many modern businesses enjoy the benefits of using a messaging service like Slack in order to chat and collaborate with coworkers. However, Slack isn’t the only option for this type of communication tool and some are turning to alternatives to help facilitate workforce interaction. Here are some of the best alternatives to Slack.

1. Fleep
This communication tool is useful in its integration of email as part of its features instead of trying to replace it completely. Users can chat through their email inbox using Fleep and still use the regular email format to communicate.

2. Google Hangouts
Although it is not a free service like Slack, Google hangouts but it is an effective tool for sending direct messages and communicating with coworkers. Google Hangouts uses “rooms” as thread based conversations for people to collaborate on projects or ideas.

3. Workplace by Facebook
While Facebook isn’t a traditional platform to use at work, it actually has tools available for collaboration so that a team can live chat even with other companies. Chatting with outside companies can minimize some of the issues that come up with more traditional email conversations.

4. Microsoft Teams
As part of the Microsoft Office 365 tools, teams allows companies to use instant chats, audio/video calls and other features. Microsoft teams is mainly used in larger enterprise companies but smaller companies can use the free version of the tool if they don’t have a Microsoft plan.

5. Stride
Many people use Stride as a free version of group chat, video conferencing and other built-in collaboration tools. It has unique features to increase productivity such as isolating and saving specific tasks from conversations.

While Slack may be the most well-known workplace chat tool, there are plenty of equally useful alternatives that make it easier for coworkers to collaborate and share ideas.

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source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/slack-alternatives/

Best Social Media Analytic and Reporting Tools

Any time you work on a social media marketing campaign, it is crucial to utilize analytics tools. Having good analytic and reporting tools is a way for businesses to evaluate the effectiveness of their campaigns. Reviewing and paying close attention to analytics makes it possible to adjust social media campaigns until they get the kind of results you are looking for.

Finding the right analytics tool for your business means being aware of the most popular tools that have proven effective for many different kinds of companies. One of the biggest and most utilized tools is Google Analytics for both the performance of your website and your social media campaigns. Google Analytics allows you to see which platforms, specific posts or advertisements brought more people to your site.

Another great analytics and reporting tool is through Brand24 which is created specifically for web and social media monitoring. Brand24 is a paid tool that helps you analyze the performance of keywords on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. You can also track engagement, influence, hashtags and other important aspects of your social media campaign.

One of the best social media monitoring tools is Cyfe which allows businesses to sync up data from many different kinds of marketing campaigns. Cyfe is especially powerful because it has multiple dashboards and integrations so that you can analyze many sets of data. It is useful not only for social media campaigns but also other marketing tactics like email, SEO, and online advertisements.

There are many analytic tools that can make it easier to keep track of your social media campaigns and look at data from your platforms to determine their effectiveness. Exploring different options can help you make sure that you choose the right tool for your business’ specific needs.  

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source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/social-media-analytic-tools/

Instagram Shopping 101

Since Instagram added shopping options to the newsfeed and more recently to the stories feature, more businesses are finding ways to showcase their products to potential customers. Shopping posts appear as sponsored ads as users scroll through their Instagram account or when they are watching a series of stories. Instagram shopping posts allow you to tag products so that customers can click through to your website where they can purchase the specific item you are advertising.

In order to use Instagram shopping you simply need to set up a business profile in Instagram and add a shop section through your Facebook business page. Your Instagram account will then be reviewed and approved so that you can have access to the shopping feature. Once the feature is available you can add product tags and stickers to your posts and Instagram stories.

The shopping feature is beneficial to both businesses and customers alike because it allows brands to increase their visibility while helping shoppers find the products they will love. Businesses can provide appealing images of their products and tag up to five products per photo or video. With Instagram stories you can add one product sticker per story with colorful text that users can tap on to see more details about the item.

Instagram may also add a shopping channel on the Explore page which will allow users to browse through multiple brands and products based on their interests. People will be able to discover new businesses as companies also will be able to expand their reach to a bigger audience. The shopping feature overall is a way for people to view products that they might not have found on their own.

Using Instagram shopping is crucial for both small businesses and larger companies that want to reach people where they spend the most time online.

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source https://www.emarketed.com/blog/instagram-shopping-101/