Best practices for back links

Back-links are important part of SEO-off page optimization.Content marketers right the content with the goal of providing back links to the site/page. Backlinks from good sites help in boosting the rank of the page however when the back links are not from the right site it can even negatively affect the ranking of the page.Content marketers needs to put effort to ensure that they are getting links from the right kind of site.
       Based on my experience will explain what are things to check for existing back links and new back links.


1.Check the relevancy:

How relevant is the site which providing you the backlinks. Do the site deals in the similar category in which your site deals with?If not then it is better to disavow the link.Below are example of good links and back links.Only exception are partner sites which can provide link to the partner sites

Your site	Back linked site	Link status
Car discussion forum	Car Review site	Good link
Real estate site	Mobile selling site	Bad link
Movie ticket selling site	Movie review site	Good link

2.Remove Directory links

Directories are basically sites which only has links such site are considered as SPAM sites. Backlinks from such site can negatively impact your site rankings as google considers links from such sites as low quality links

3.No follow Forum post

There are chances that  people may post on your site to build back links to their site.The post may be just spam which are done basically to promote their site links.In such cases ensure that your site page has "No follow" rel attributes which tells google not to pass any link  juice to the backlinked site.SPAM posts can negatively your site rankings .

4.Check Domain authority of site

Check the domain authority of the site which is providing the back links to your site.In case the domain authority is pretty low then it is necessary to check out how old the site is and the content of the site.In case if you feel that site is of low quality then disavow the links from that site

5.Avoid paid links

In the past it was practice to pay a site to get backlinks from them.Google now has become smart enough to identify such links and site.When backlinks are coming from paid site it is necessary to remove those links as google considers it as unnatural ways of getting links.

In order to know more about SEO check out SEO mistakes to be avoided
                                                                     
Also check out:Common SEO issues
                                                                   

Usability testing -How to do?

To create user centric design, it is necessary to test design with set of users and get there feedback in order to know how good is the design from the user point of view.The feedback can guide the designers in making right changes to the design in order to achieve the goal of best in class user experience.User testing is all about getting the right feedback from the user.User testing may not be succeed in providing the right results in case it is not done properly.

                                                                   In this blog will discuss on how user testing should be done.

1.Pick the right users:

User who are picked will directly impact  the quality of the output of user testing.The users who are chosen for the testing should not have any direct involvement in the product .Users selected should be tech savvy and they should also be regular internet users but they should not be expert in the design as it may lead to bias in their judgement.User selected should be from diverse background since it will help in getting feedback from different perspectives.

2.Ask right set of question

The questions which are asked to the user should not lead them to answer what you want to hear as it does not provide the right feedback.The question should be centered around getting feedback on below point

1.Ease of navigation
2.Ordering of the data
3.What he did not like?
4.What he liked about the design?
5.What could be added?
6.Display text infrence

3.Create a complete prototype

The prototype which is being tested should be complete.It should have all the navigation which the original product will have so that you get better idea and the entire design can be optimized accordingly.The HTML should also show the right text for CTA button so that one can analyze user reaction to the text being displayed

4.Detailed documentation

User testing can be of little value if the user feedback is not recorded against each question.This should be done in order to identify the most genuine concerns of the users which help in addressing the right issues which users are facing.

New Product SEO audit

Whenever a new product/page is launched it is necessary to ensure that it is optimized from SEO perspective.If the product/page does not follow SEO guidelines then there are chances that it may negatively impact organic traffic and so it can lead to drop in value extracted out of the product.

                   It is also necessary to keep track of what is changing in the new page when compared to old page so that when something goes wrong in new page the reason can be easily identified and fixed.Below are the things that needs to be checked from SEO perspective when launching new page..

1.Meta title and description:

It should be known that when Meta title and description impact the keyword you are targeting. When meta is changed it may lead to drop in rank or also reduction in quality of the traffic.So it is necessary to check the meta before launching the page.In case the meta is automated ensure that logic is working fine

2.Link from the page:

The new page should be linked from the other pages so that google can find the page and crawls the  page.It also help google understand the links.

3.Rel attributes:

Rel attributes are the ones which signals the bot what it is expected to do the page.Ensure that all the rel attributes such as no follow,canonical,prev next etc... are properly place on the page.If these are wrongly placed or missed that it can create a lot of problems in terms of indexing and ranking of the page

4.Links not working on page:

Ensure that all the links on the page is working so that when google crawls the page it does not leads to 404 error  for page which can again impact your SEO rankings

5.URL path changes:

The URL for the page also plays important role in making bot understand what the page is all about if the URL is changed ensure that 301/302 redirect are properly placed so that link rank get transferred to new page

6.Heading tags

It is quite possible the current heading tags have been changed in the new page.It is necessary to ensure that all the heading tags are as per the requirement to ensure that google properly understands the keywords your page is targeting.

Low Involvement products-What online platform has to do

Low involvement products are the one in which risk involved in buying is pretty less.They are basically FMCG products,hotels which customers can get at pretty low price and can be easily disposed off.In these kind of products user basically looks for variety as the risk involved in trying out new things is pretty less.Most of the eCommerce companies sells these kind of products.
                                             In this blog I would cover what a online platform should do when they are selling these kind of products.The margin involved in such products is pretty low and so a site has to mainly depend on volume to make profit.

When an company tries to builds a online platform to sell low involvement product it should have

1.Product differentiation:

Customer looking for variety so they want to now how one product is different from other .Higher the differentiation,better the chance to sell the product provided it meets customer's needs

2.Strong and efficient supply chain

In case of low involvement products,customer requires products to be delivered in less time since these are urgent need of the customer.Lower the time of delivery higher is the chance of selling the product.When the delivery time is more people may opt to buy from offline stores.


3.Replacement and Return

There are chances that product is not as per customer expectation so it is necessary to have return and replacement policy so that customer has choice to replace the product he does not like

4.User ratings

Since customers are buying product without any physical touch for it is necessary to know how the experience was for the existing customers for the product.This help user understand how good the product is and is it worth buying

5.Complementary products

There are some product which works well with some complementary products this information should also be shown to the user in order to cross sell the other products

Check out part 1-High involvement product here

High Involvement products-What to do

Products can be classified as high involvement product or low involvement products.High involvement products are one in which risk is pretty high and variety is also pretty high.There are basically four quadrants in which any product can fall.

1.Low Risk,Low Variety:In this kind of products the user follows a picking behavior which means price is the single most important factor in deciding which product to buy eg..Salt,sugar,

2.Low Risk,High Variety:In this kind of products user is more looking for variety.He wants to try out new things.He can give higher price in case he finds it valuable.For ex..Toothpaste,restaurants,chocolates etc..

3.High risk,high variety:In this kind of products user is very careful about what he should buy and does lot of research on what he should buy before finally buying.This are basically high involvement products such as home,Cars etc.. as  wrong decision can bring in lot of trouble to the buyer

4.High risk,low variety:When the risk is high and variety is low buyers generally follows a habitual behavior in which he does not want to change or switch products.This mainly applies for medicines,baby products etc.When the product belongs to this category it is necessary to create the felling of trust among the buyers in order to get repeat business.



In this blog I will discuss what a online platform should do to be successful in selling high involvement products like property ,Cars

High Involvement product-How to build online platform

1.Expert advice:

When a product is high involvement it requires guidance for the user to identify the right product.The expert guidance can be in form of chat or any tools which helps user/guides user to a right decision.It should be basically a recommendation based on user requirement.

2.Verified/Trust:

The risk involved in buying high involvement product is very high so it should be ensured that what ever product being sold is verified so that it reduces the level of risk for the user to buy

3.Step by step guide:

In buying high involvement product there a long process which user has to follow in order to avoid any kind of problems in future.User should be guided through the process which he should follow to own/buy the product

4. Comparison of different products:

Due to high variety a buyer may get confused on which product to buy.In this case it is important for the buyer to identify which product is better than other based on his requirement so that he can make the right decision

5.Richness of information

Due to high risks people want to be sure that they are buying right product which means that customer wants information in detail in order to make right decision which means that it is important to have as much information as possible in order to help customer in  making right decision.The information can be in form of videos,pictures,reviews,text etc..

Check out Part 1-Low Involvement product Here

What does SEO team do?

SEO requires lot of work both off page on page and also technical SEO. There are different skills require for different tasks in SEO. There can be people who can perform multiple roles at a time based on his talent and caliber.In this blog I will discuss in detail what are the different things which SEO people do in an organisation

   1.  keyword Research

This person is responsible to identify the keywords that the site should target and also researching on new keywords that are used for searching the same information.There are lot of tools available in market to do keyword research one of them is Key word planner,

   2.  Link building

This role involves identifying new sites from where one can get back links. This also involves tie ups with various credible sites which has good domain authority to provide back links.

   3. Meta changes

The Meta  such title,descriptions needs to be changed or optimized based on search queries so that a site ranks better than others.This requires CMS system to update the meta.The meta changes are done based on current rank.

  4.Reporting and analysis

This job requires checking various SEO metrics on daily basis and reporting to the concerned team.It also involves checking out if there are any errors in webmaster and fixing them.

5.Technical SEO

SEO team has to ensure that site is as per google guidelines and also all the errors in the google webmaster are resolved.There are various common SEO issues which crops up frequently SEO team has to ensure that all the technical SEO issues are resolved.

Hurdles in Product innovation

Product innovation is necessary in order to keep the product relevant with time and also to create a differentiation in the market.However,very few product really innovate and create a differentiation.Rest all just follow what others do.
                                             Right innovation can help companies to grow leaps and bounds by catching on the opportunity.In Online product there is large scope for innovation .In this blog will discuss what stops innovation and how to deal with it.

1.Sales pressure:

Product guys works in sync with sales and there can be chances that due to sales pressure one only launches the product which  just increase sales without providing any value to the user.This can thwart innovation.

How to avoid:Once should chart out how the new product innovation can increase sales and explain sales team how to will bring value to business as well as user.

2.Risk factor

One may not innovate because of risk involved in innovation.There are high chances that innovation may not bring in the desired results.This may prevent people from innovating as failure may lead to loss of value of a person in organisation.

It is necessary to have a back up plan to mitigate the risk involved in innovation.This can be done by thoroughly anticipating the expected results and creating a backup plan for it.Consider you have launched an online booking for property.

            Expected results                        How to mitigate
          Lack of booking                     SEM,Mailers,Site visit facility,Other projects

3.Lack of ideas

There are chances that people may not have right ideas to innovate.This can be because of lack of knowledge in the particular field or because most of the innovation is already done

It is necessary to fully understand the field by talking to user,customers and referring various materials.One can also do the competitive analysis and check what nobody is doing.This can bring in some ideas to innovate

4.Lack of resources

This can be very common problem for many startups .The solution of this can be to either assign part of the employee KRAs to innovation which can help in bringing in innovation in the product.