A few tips when you’re online

We have come up with a few tips to help you begin. If you value your privacy but you’d still want to get to know others through our platform, you don’t need to fret because there are ways in which you can share your information safely without giving too much away.

Here are a few things to bear in mind:

Avoid catfishing. Catfishing is a strategy designed to attract you to a relationship in order to steal your personal information, money, or even both. Always remember that the people on the other side of the conversation might not be who you think they are. Treat all correspondence with caution when they come from someone you don’t know.

Use online dating websites you trust. Read their Privacy Policy carefully. Assess if the type of information that they are asking is basic and not threatening. In our case, the only thing we ask from you is your age, sex, and location. Your BBM pin will only be revealed to those you want to connect with.

Be careful with the information you post online. Think about what you are posting, who will be seeing it, and what it says about you before you post anything on a social networking site.

Be smart about details in photos. Make sure that the background of your photo do not reveal any personal information such as your car plate number or house address.

Block and report suspicious people. You have the right to report any individual who you think poses a threat or who has done something that made you feel uncomfortable. Record your conversations if necessary.

How about you? Are there any necessary precautions which you take when you connect with others online? Feel free to share them with others in the comments!

Source: http://bit.ly/1jZLq9X

SEO VS. SMO: THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Internet Marketing is a cutting-edge industry that is constantly evolving. There is something new to learn every day, and what worked yesterday doesn't work today. As an internet marketing firm, we can tell you that it is a full-time job staying on top of each new trend, practice, and Google update.

On the one hand, this fluidity is exactly why businesses need a third party to manage all of their digital marketing strategies — you, as a business owner, already have your hands full with your business operations. On the other hand, this fluidity is also why it is so easy for businesses to be taken advantage of by, shall we say, less-than-reputable individuals or companies looking to earn a quick buck off of a business's naiveté.

What Is SEO?

Simply put, SEO is a set of tactics that brings more people to your site by improving search engine rankings. A good SEO strategy includes a number of practices and techniques to make sure that people who are looking for the products or services that you offer, or information relevant to your industry, find your site before they find your competitor's site.

What Is SMO?

Social media optimization is the part of search engine optimization that deals with all things social. It includes:

• Setting up and optimizing social profiles to make them as visible and relevant as possible
• Publishing fresh, interesting, shareable content
• Participating in social conversations to humanize your company and build brand recognition
• Providing a place where customers can praise or complain about your company's service
• Responding graciously and appreciatively to customer praise
• Addressing customer complaints and resolving issues in a transparent manner

... etc. Social media is where the community comes together to talk, and whether you're participating in that dialogue or not, you are still likely a topic. Social media optimization is where you get to find out what your customers like, dislike, need, and want. You can find out how they feel about your company for virtually nothing — it's free market research! All it costs is time.

How SEO and SMO Fit Together

Google is ever striving to make sure that the companies who make it to the top of the search results page are the ones who deserve to be there. This is why companies who practice techniques like keyword-stuffing and link-spamming are quickly rooted out and penalized. Google wants to provide information to their users. If you are providing solid information and fresh content relevant to your industry, then Google thinks that you belong at the top.

Social media optimization then, is what proves to Google that your site provides valuable information to their users. The more social media users engage with you and share your content, the more authority you must have in your industry, the higher you rank. Therefore, SMO is a hugely important piece of the SEO pie!

However, the ultimate goal of any SEO strategy is not to drive people to your Facebook page or Pinterest board... it is to drive people to your website so that your website can do ITS job and convert users into paying customers. There are many places across the internet that customers can go to find out if you are a company who knows what it's talking about, treats its customers well, and provides good service at a good value. If your SEO strategy leaves out these other sources of potential web traffic, then you're missing out on a lot of potential customers. Can you afford to lose this potential revenue to your competition?

Source: http://goo.gl/tD88tU

Complete Knowledge of Social Media Optimization

SMO is certainly a form of search engine marketing and the assorted SMO rules originated guarantee that vast traffic is driven to the website. Here it requires to be emphasized that unlike SEO, SMO relies on more canals (and not just on search engines) to guide traffic.

A pretty new idea, SMO requires making the preeminent exploit of social media for website optimization. The innovative idea behind SMO is to build the websites more popular, more effortlessly visible in social media searches accomplished by custom search engines for instance Technorati. There are numerous manners that you can do it, whether you make use of blogs, podcasts or Blogs, your basic endeavor must be to make the website simply linkable. Yet again, speaking of content diversification, the simpler it can be done, the superior will it be for you. Therefore, going by SMO laws, you advantage if you permit others to make exploit of the website-content and even tools.

The rules of Social Media Optimization are as follows:

• Grant ability for simple linking
• Insert Tagging and Bookmarking
• Participate
• Active content
• Permit comments to be posted on your active contents
• Generate Blog for your website
• Social Networking
• Get LinkedIn

Methodologies for SMO

Active Content: As is the case with Search Engine Optimization, content (active content at that) appears to be the strength of Social Media Optimization. Arrange dynamic contents for your websites in order that the websites are optimized for Social Media.

Social Bookmarking: Social Bookmarking is the additional vital feature of SMO. This comprises adding social bookmarking tools plus precise bookmarking facilities like bookmarking and tag optimization for reddit, digg, frank, Netvouz, furl, blinklist, technorati and further social bookmarking doorways.

Blog Optimization: Blogs are another vital input for your website to be optimized for social media. Set up blog for your website and then optimize it for Search Engines. WordPress arrives with outstanding SEO plugin which makes Blogs simpler to be optimized.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication: RSS offers an efficient manner to deal out the dynamic content of the website. Add RSS in your website particularly for active content and distribute to assorted RSS portals.

Source: http://goo.gl/F9Xv1w

SEO and SMO: How the Blend Ensures Success of Your Site?

The value of the World Wide Web is increasing exponentially by the day as far as marketers are concerned. The ease and speed that it offers in connecting a company with customers, existing and potential, are tremendous. It is in this light that the two terms, SEO (search engine optimization) and SMO (social media optimization) have been the constant refrain of the marketing world.

While debates rage on as to which is better and more effective, the correct answer would be – a synergy of both SEO and SMO. This is because while SEO and SMO are totally different as concepts, they both strive for the same common goals – site ranking, popularity, traffic and success.

It becomes easy to build a synergy between the two once we recognize the similarities. Original and authentic content of high quality is a must for the success of both SMO and SEO. This is because either the crawling search bots and spiders or the liking and sharing friends recognize quality content. Thus, in both of them, having clear and apt keywords along with the headliners becomes necessary and vital.

They need to grab the attention of the readers and potential customers. Finally, it is essential that the site have user-friendly features like Meta tags, descriptions, images, videos, breadcrumb navigation etc. that will get good results from both SEO and SMO.

Here are a few tips to get the most of your SEO and SMO efforts:

Use the right Keywords

Make use of keywords in the headlines, text and tags. They should be both, relevant and attractive. This will also help to target certain audiences in social media and ensure that the conversion from casual onlookers to loyal customers is at a greater rate.

Structure of site

Structuring the site and coding it well makes it easy for the search spiders to find it and rank it higher. At the front end, the design of the site must reflect the attitudes, thoughts and fancies of the customer segments being targeted. Once this is done, a high virility can be ensured in the social networks via sharing and liking.

Add a blog

The site can have a blog of its own if necessary. Getting to know a ‘human face’ in a technology-filled virtual world is calming and encouraging for the customers. Thus, building an online community will also ensure that you have a loyal following. The chances of inbound and outbound links increase as the loyal followers are sure to share their experiences with family, friends and contacts. This enhances the SEO of the site too and the synergy builds.

Make it attractive

While images, videos and flash might not be visible to search spiders but they definitely play an important role in keeping the customers interested and engrossed. To make them friendly for the search spiders you could exhaustively tag them. This helps to achieve both SEO and SMO.

Source: http://goo.gl/Xffepp

4 ESSENTIAL LAYOUT TRENDS FOR 2015

The web has changed a lot over the last decade, and at the same time it hasn’t changed at all. If we look back 10 years we will find that the web had a very common layout pattern at work across the bulk of sites. This go-to pattern consisted of a header, footer, sidebar and content area. It was the expected layout for the web. At the same time, we had rise of Macromedia Flash which gave way to an era of alternate layouts. Layouts that didn’t stick to this strict formula. And of course with the implosion of Flash this approach faded for a bit…I say for a bit, because it is back with a vengeance.

If you survey one of the many popular galleries showcasing current web design you will no doubt notice that the fundamental structure for web pages is anything but fixed. It can flex and change to just about anything it needs to be. This in my opinion is one of the best side effects responsive web design has produced. The new norm as it were, is that there appears to be no fixed formula at all.

All of that said we can observe several high level trends in layout design that represent what I consider to be unusual layouts. Unusual because they don’t follow a strict formula, or predefined system. But they are trends in that I can provide dozens, if not hundreds of examples filling each of these categories.

What you find here is an interesting blend of trends and unusual layouts that will hopefully inspire you to assess the fundamental structures your applying to web design. Let’s dive in and take a look…

SPLIT SCREENS

In this category we find a selection of sites that all split the screen using a vertical divide. There are perhaps many reasons to do this, and in surveying many samples of this type I have found two main reasons.

The first is that at times a design can really have two primary elements of equal importance. A common approach to web design is to rank things in order of importance. This importance is then reflected in the hierarchy and structure of the design. But what if you actually have two things to promote? This approach allows you to give prominence to them both and allow the user to rapidly select between them.

The second reason I have found for this approach is that sometimes you need to convey an important duality. Consider the Eight and Four website for example. Here they want to convey the fact that their core strengths are their digital roots and their talented staff. This pairing is what defines them. The split screen is a lovely way to present this. And I especially love how the ampersand unifies the two sides.

NO CHROME!

One of the main elements used in web design are containing elements: boxes, borders, shapes and containers of all types used to split the content of a page apart. Consider a stereotypical header where the elements are neatly contained and separated from the content. A common trend now is to remove all of this extra chrome.

This is a minimalist approach, but it goes a step further and has some interesting twists along the way.

In this example they have eliminated the notion of a header and footer all together. It feels more like an interactive kiosk instead. The hierarchy of content is primarily done through a left to right organization, which helps make the layout very intuitive. And the chrome to separate navigation from content is simply not needed. Instead, the beautiful products shine through.

Here we find that the content is greatly emphasized by removing any sense of a header or footer. Instead of reading a header first, you read the name of the company and a clear statement about what they do (and where they do it). Followed by the main navigation. What a great way to emphasize the brand before getting people to navigate. It makes for an elegant flow. Interestingly as you scroll the page gets a header and a touch of chrome. A beautiful and effective layout that uses the pattern in an inspiring way.

MODULAR OR GRID BASED

Next up we have layouts built on modular or grid-like structures. In these designs each module is intended to flex based on the screen size. This isn’t exactly a new approach, but the introduction of responsive web design has made it even more useful. This hints at the type of adaptable layouts one can create with plugins like Masonry.

This example perfectly demonstrates the idea. The design is completely responsive. As the screen size changes each module adapts and sizes to fit the space. By dividing the space evenly it is easier to have the design adapt. And they get bonus points for introducing an element (at larger screen sizes) that breaks the rigid barriers between modules.

This example is a rather intense version of the pattern. It does of course embrace the modular approach, which allows them to easily shift content in and out as needed. But there is an important design element at work here, which the previous example lacked. The size of the modules vary to reflect the order of importance and its place in the hierarchy. A risk of this modular approach is making everything the same size, which means you’re not really emphasizing anything. In contrast, this example clearly gives importance to the primary element.

FILLING A SINGLE SCREEN

Finally we have sites using an approach where the design adapts to completely fill the screen. This is a subset of responsive design in that it adapts to the screen size. But in this niche the designs adapt in such a way such that they completely fill the screen and do not produce scroll bars. This lack of scrolling means the content has to be extremely focused, and the hierarchy of content clearly established. I find the focus and clarity of these sites to be refreshing.

CONCLUSION

While I have dissected each of these trends here in isolation the reality is that they represent building blocks. And these building blocks can be assembled in many different ways. In fact, many of the samples presented here could be moved around to numerous of the categories we have discussed. The diversity of layouts on the modern web, and the fact that they are usable makes the web an exciting medium to work with.

Source: http://goo.gl/Fqp1jM