Mobile Marketing: How To Market Your Mobile Website

We’re nearing the end of the series about Mobile Web Development, Optimization and Marketing. On the previous posts, we discussed the four (4) different ways to reach your mobile consumer and analyzed their pros and cons. Last time, we introduced optimization techniques on how to make your existing website mobile-friendly. On this fifth installment, learn the basics of SEO and marketing strategies should you choose to have a separate site intended for mobile consumers.

Mobile Website Defined.

This is the second copy of your main site. Your visitors are directed to it if they’re using a handheld or tablet device. It displays only pertinent information and is designed with larger navigation and special features like click-to-call functions all aimed to give your audience the best mobile user experience.

Mobile Website and SEO.

As users hate to scroll through a page when they’re using their smartphones, it is extremely important to be on the top of the list should a prospective mobile client decide to search for a certain service your company happens to offer. Thus, here are three (3) simple tips to help you rank better on mobile search engines.

·         Onpage. Similar to web, optimize your title, meta and tags with the right keywords. During keyword research, consider the behavior of mobile users as they totally differ from the web users – factor such as the earlier tends to type fewer words than the latter.

·         Mobile Standards. Just like your usual Googlebot task, it indexes the XHTML and CSS files of your mobile website. Make sure that you upload the correct copy accordingly.

·         Redirection and Sitemap. Test to see if redirection works properly in different gadgets. You wouldn’t want to lose a potential buyer by merely failing to direct them to the right version of your website. Add a mobile sitemap for mobile robots.

Mobile Website and Marketing.

Modifying your site to increase ranking on mobile search engines isn’t enough. What about the people who use local directories to look for a recommended restaurant or dry cleaning shop near the area. Then enters marketing. Below are ideas on how to approach this type of crowd:

·         Online coupons. Mobile people most often than not prefers local. Hence, if your firm is located in the country, have a webdesign professional in the Philippines create online coupons to generate sales for your business. This is a great opportunity to maximize purchases that can be done in impulse.

·         Listings. If you’re a local resto that offers exotic Pinoy cuisine, have an SEO company in the Philippines submit your listing to a local food directory. In this way, you can get leads that are targeted according to your niche.

·         Reviews. Have your satisfied customers write a review for you. Let the word about your excellent products and services go out.

·         Social Media Promotions. Utilize the social media hype. Add your business in Foursquare for better visibility. Reward regulars with freebies for frequently checking in.

·         QR Codes. Your customer can reach your website by simply scanning your QR codes found online and on print. So remember include this in your marketing plans as well.  

Next up is how to market your mobile app.

Mobile Web Development: Mobile Site vs Mobile App

MobileWeb Usage Statistics.

based on Westminster eForum, March 2012 and Pew Research Center

• A sale coming from mobile phones on eBay comes every 2 seconds.
• Smartphone sales have become bigger than PC sales.
• Tablet sales are expected to exceed 100 million by the end of the year.
• 28% of Internet usage comes from a mobile phone.
• 86% of adults own a cellphone and 53% use it to access the Internet.

With the above stats, are you and your business prepared for the explosion of the mobile web? In this series, we already tackled four (4) ways to reach your mobileconsumers as well as the advantagesof Responsive Design over Mobile website (and vice versa). On this post, let’s see which between the two, by going through their features, would be the best solution to your business needs – would it be a mobile website or a mobile application?

When to use a Mobile Website.

As mobile websites were strategically designed for smartphones and not desktop PCs, they have been made efficient to show only the most relevant information compared to the full web version. Thus, they are mainly the effective choice if Analytics show that majority of the visits come from mobile devices.

When to use Mobile Apps.

Since mobile applications are stand-alone software aimed for a specific purpose, they normally direct the people to their own compact form of a browser for additional details. The apps then get the content from its server so that the downloader can retrieve it anytime. They are the best option if the target audience uses a tool regularly (like Evernote).

Here are ten (10) more factors that illustrate how they differ from each other.

1.      Ease of Access

·         Mobile site: may be accessed only when online

·         Mobile apps: may be accessed even when offline

2.      Availability of Content

·         Mobile site: instantly available since content may be viewed via browser

·         Mobile apps: available only after apps has been downloaded from the marketplace and installed on the gadget

3.      Ability to be searchable

·         Mobile site: easier to find because search engines have a distinct mobile search index similar to web’s

·         Mobile apps: harder to find as it all depends if the apps exists on the app store of manufacturer

4.      Ability to be shareable

·         Mobile site: easy to share, it takes only one click. It’s like sharing a regular web link, only it’s done on mobile

·         Mobile app: harder to share as the person either has to go to the marketplace first or download another app to enable sharing

5.      Compatibility

·         Mobile site: compatible to all device types – smartphones, tablets

·         Mobile apps: solely depends on the device. There are apps that might work on Apple but wouldn’t work on Android or Blackberry

6.      Integration Feature.

·         Mobile site: can integrate with existing technologies such as QR codes or SMS

·         Mobile apps: can integrate in terms of built-in features like camera or processing power

7.      Administrative User Control and Permission

·         Mobile site: the user has no authorization to the site except to “Read”. Complete control goes to the webmaster

·         Mobile apps: the user has the absolute authority to do anything he likes with the app. He can run it, retain or opt to delete it. He has “Read, Write and Execute” permission.

8.      Update and Maintenance

·         Mobile site: easy to update and maintain on the developers end. If the site is local and the layout needs to be changed, a web design expert in the Philippines can effortlessly do the work.

·         Mobile apps: hard to update and maintain due to its long procedure to do so. If the app is locally-made, the assigned iOS developer in the Philippines, will initially perform the update and compatibility debugging. Once tested, he will upload it along with documentation about the latest revision. The user will then transfer and install the newest copy on his phone.

9.      Cost and Affordability

·         Mobile site: more affordable due to updates and maintenance

·         Mobile apps: less affordable for the same reason

10.  Best suited for:

·         Mobile site: Ecommerce websites. The simple step-by-step instructions will guide prospective buyer to a simpler process of purchase

·         Mobile app: Interactive games

On the next post, discover techniques on how to optimize your current site tomake it mobile-friendly.

Learning about Limitations of SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is considered as one of the most effective Internet Marketing techniques used by many web masters today. The reason why is because of its effectiveness in increasing the quality and quantity of traffic in a website which leads to higher conversion rate.

In addition to that, SEO is also able to target its specific market through personalized marketing which is only possible through search engines.

However, though SEO is considered today as one of the most successful and the most powerful, its success is only limited on how well the website was constructed.

Limitations of SEO
According to many seo philippines experts, SEO is used mainly to increase a website’s visibility in the World Wide Web market by making the highest relevant answer to a search query, allowing these websites to appear in the first top 10 SERP or search engine result page.

However, its effectiveness it’s usually limited to only increasing a website’s visitor, and not the website’s conversion rate. This is the reason why SEO is usually offered with a redesign of a website so as to fully utilize SEO’s effectiveness in web marketing.

On-Page SEO Optimization
On-Page SEO Optimization, or on-page optimization, is a process in SEO which deals with the improvement of the website to make it more “search engine friendly.” This is by increasing the website’s keyword density.

According to many affordable seo services experts, there are many ways on how to increase a website’s keyword density, such as through its coding, such as the website’s Meta Tags including the Meta Title (the title of the page), the Meta Description (the description of the page), and Meta Keywords (the keywords of the page).

In addition to those, the Alt Tags and Title Tags are also popular places where SEO experts can increase a website’s keyword density, as well as with its URL and links. On-Page SEO also involves changing an image’s file name.

But other than on the website’s coding, on-page SEO also involves changing the website’s content. Not only does this improve the website’s keyword density, but also improves the website’s authority in the World Wide Web by sharing information that can be useful for many people. This is also used in a popular SEO technique called link bait.

Source: http://www.amazines.com/article_detail.cfm/4425650?articleid=4425650&title=SEO%2CPhilippines%2Caffordable%2Cseo%2Cservices

Evolution of the Ecommerce Websites

Ecommerce websites have become a popular trend in the World Wide Web ever since the dotcom boom. Today, ecommerce websites are still known as one of the most popular forms of websites in the World Wide Web. And since its first use, ecommerce websites are now more popularly known as online shops.

Ecommerce Website Development

Ecommerce websites are known as one of the most complicated websites that any web developers have ever encountered. The reason why is because of its back-end programming as well as server-side scripting languages, such as PHP and ASP. In addition to that, the demand for ecommerce web designer had also grown.

Other than the development stage, there is also the cost of maintaining an ecommerce website. Updating products and services requires the skills of a professional web developer or a web design services Philippines when it comes to changing their website’s design and layout.

However, there is a tool today that can be used to allow people with little knowledge in web development and design to edit their website’s content as well as products just as easily. This is when ecommerce web applications became a popular trend in the World Wide Web Market.

Ecommerce Web Application

Ecommerce web applications, such as Magento, had become a popular tool in web development. Not only did these kinds of tools made it easier for web developers to maintain an ecommerce website, but also made it easier for owners to make changes within their website’s services and products themselves without the supervision of a professional web developer.

There are many of these kinds of tools that are currently used today; some of the most popular are as follows:

Magento

Magento is an open source ecommerce web application that was launched on March 31, 2008. There are three different Magentos available today, the community edition, which is the free edition, the professional edition, and the enterprise edition.

osCommerce

osCommerce (“open source Commerce”) is an e-commerce and online store-management software program. It can be used on any web server that has PHP and MySQL installed. It is available as free software under the GNU General Public License.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is an e-commerce solution which is free and open source. It supports payment gateways such as Google Checkout, Authorize.net, Skrill, PayPal and Payments Pro via API. Further payment modules are offered commercially.

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What is Progressive Enhancement?

There are many popular methodologies or practices developed in web designing. One of the most popular today is the Progressive Enhancement methodology, which is still widely practiced in the web development industry.

What is Progressive Enhancement?

Progressive enhancement, or PE, is a strategy for web design that emphasizes accessibility, semantic HTML markup, and external stylesheet and scripting technologies. Progressive enhancement uses web technologies in a layered fashion that allows everyone to access the basic content and functionality of a web page, using any browser or Internet connection, while also providing an enhanced version of the page to those with more advanced browser software or better bandwidth.

Principles Behind Progressive Enhancement or PE

According to many web experts offering some of the best web design services, Progressive Enhancement consists of the following core principles: (1) basic content should be accessible to all web browsers, (2) basic functionality should be accessible to all web browsers, (3) sparse, semantic markup contains all content, (4) enhanced layout is provided by externally linked CSS, enhanced behavior is provided by unobtrusive, externally linked JavaScript, and (5) end-user web browser preferences are respected.

Benefits of Progressive Enhancement or PE

Web pages created according to the principles of PE are by their nature more accessible, because the strategy demands that basic content always be available, not obstructed by commonly unsupported or easily disabled scripting.

Additionally, According to many web experts offering some of the best Philippine web design, the sparse markup principle makes it easier for tools that read content aloud to find that content. It is unclear as to how well PE sites work with older tools designed to deal with table layouts, "tag soup," and the like.

Benefits in SEO or Search Engine Optimization

Improved results with respect to search engine optimization are another side effect of a PE-based Web design strategy. Because the basic content is always accessible to search engine spiders, pages built with PE methods avoid problems that may hinder search engine indexing.

Criticism

Some skeptics, such as Garret Dimon, have expressed their concern that PE is not workable in situations that rely heavily on JavaScript to achieve certain user interface presentations or behaviors.

Others have countered with the point that informational pages should be coded using PE in order to be indexed by spiders, and that even Flash-heavy pages should be coded using PE.

In a related area, many have expressed their doubts concerning the principle of the separation of content and presentation in absolute terms, pushing instead for a realistic recognition that the two are inextricably linked.

                                                                                                                                             Source...

A Look at PHP Accelerators

One of today’s most popular server-side scripting languages that many web programmers use in web development is PHP. And there are many reasons why many had preferred the use of PHP rather than the use of other types of server-side scripting languages, such as Microsoft’s ASP. These reasons include the PHP accelerator.

What is a PHP Accelerator?

A PHP accelerator is a PHP extension designed to improve the performance of software applications written in the PHP programming language. 

According to many php developers experts, most PHP accelerators work by caching the compiled bytecode of PHP scripts to avoid the overhead of parsing and compiling source code on each request (some or even most of which may never be executed). To further improve performance, the cached code is stored in shared memory and directly executed from there, minimizing the amount of slow disk reads and memory copying at runtime. 

Advantages PHP accelerators can substantially increase the speed of PHP applications. Improvements of web page generation throughput by factors of 2 to 7 have been observed. 

The effect on application performance of opcode caching varies widely, depending on factors such as the inherent execution time of the PHP application and the percentage of source code actually executed on a given request, and whether additional optimization steps are performed. 

According to many web developer Philippines experts, while a code optimizer may even slow down overall performance when used in isolation, it can provide an additional performance boost when coupled with a bytecode cache, as the optimization effort is performed just once. 

A Popular Example of PHP Accelerator

eAccelerator is a PHP accelerator derived from the MMCache extension for the PHP programming language. eAccelerator provides a bytecode cache. eAccelerator is open source and thereby free to use and distribute. Old and unmaintained versions also provided an encoder. 

Every time a PHP script is accessed, PHP usually parses and compiles scripts to bytecode. Once installed, eAccelerator optimizes the compiled bytecode and caches this to shared memory or disk or both. Upon subsequent accesses to a script, eAccelerator will access cached bytecode if it is available instead of the script being compiled. This avoids the performance overhead of repeated parsing and compilation. 

Previous eAccelerator versions also provided functions for use in PHP scripts that allow access to shared memory, automatic web (content) caching, and other related tasks. These were removed as of version 0.9.6rc1. 

Old eAccelerator versions had an encoder component that creates a file that cannot be as easily read as a normal PHP script, offering some code protection. A dedicated extension named eLoader is available to process such encoded scripts if the eAccelerator extension is not desired. This functionality has been removed from the current developer version and will not be part of the next release.

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The Value of E-Commerce and Online Store-Management Applications E-Commerce Websites

The steady increase of e-commerce websites in the World Wide Web had triggered the development of different maintenance tools in which web owners can use to allow themselves to maintain their own websites without the assistance of a professional web developer. This is when e-commerce and online store-management applications were developed.

What is an E-Commerce and Online Store-Management Application?

An e-commerce and online store-management application is a program used to maintain e-commerce websites, allowing people who have little to no knowledge of web programming and web development to maintain their own websites with little assistance from a professional e-commerce web developer.

This is very similar to the purpose of using a Web CMS or WCMS to maintain a website. However, these programs possess more functionality which allows these to manipulate an e-commerce website.

Popular E-Commerce and Online Store-Management Applications According to different expert web developer Philippines, there are many online store-management applications used today, and some of the most popular are:

Magento

Magento is an open source ecommerce web application that was launched on March 31, 2008. Varien, the company owning Magento, formerly worked with osCommerce. They originally planned to fork osCommerce but later decided to rewrite it as Magento.

There are currently three versions of Magento, the Professional Edition, the Enterprise Edition, and the Community Edition. The Magento Community Edition is the only free version of Magento available. 

osCommerce

osCommerce (“open source Commerce”) is an e-commerce and online store-management software program. It can be used on any web server that has PHP and MySQL installed. It is available as free software under the GNU General Public License.

There are currently two supported stable releases of osCommerce. Versions 3.0 and 2.3 are developed as two independent programs, and as such do not share code. Contributions, the official name for the open-source community developed plugins, are developed for either 2.x or 3.0, and are incompatible with one another. There is much more support, and are many more contributions for osCommerce version 2 releases than version 3. Contributions are updated, or released daily. 

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is a free, open source e-commerce solution used by more than 120,000 active stores around the world. It supports payment gateways such as Google Checkout, Authorize.net, Skrill, PayPal and Payments Pro via API. Further payment modules are offered commercially.

The software makes extensive use of AJAX in the admin panel, while module blocks can be easily added to the store to provide extra functionality; these are normally provided free of charge by independent developers. The makers of PrestaShop have an official marketplace for priced modules and themes entitled PrestaShop Addons.

There are a number of volunteers who support and contribute their own Addons to PrestaShop. Contributors often program additional features for the software, on top of the 275 features available by default.

Source from Margarette McBride of IT Company Marikina

Learning about Facebook’s Capability for Successful Internet Marketing

Facebook is one of today’s most visited websites in the World Wide Web. And it was because of this that Facebook became the popular place to market a business which in turn led to the growth of an Internet Marketing technique that focuses mainly on Facebook and other popular social media sites. This is SMO or Social Media Optimization.

What is Social Media Optimization?

Social Media Optimization, or SMO, is a type of Internet Marketing technique which involves mainly marketing the business through the use of several different social networking sites. And one of the most popular is Facebook.

Why Facebook?

According to many Internet Marketing experts, SMO evolved from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in which one of their most popular technique is the use of social networking sites not only to create one-way links, but also to promote a business in a social networking hub. One of those that SEO have used is Facebook.

Facebook, though more popularly known for its use as a way for people to connect with friends and relative, or to meet new friends not only locally, but globally, Facebook had also incorporated a way for businesses to interact with their customers and clients, as well as a way to market their business through the millions and millions of people subscribed to Facebook.

Popular Facebook Marketing Techniques 

There are many popular techniques used in Facebook today to market their business through Facebook. Some of the most popular are Facebook pages, Facebook Ads, as well as through Facebook applications which led to the growth of facebook applications developers today.

Facebook Page 

One of the first way to use Facebook as a marketing tool is by creating a Facebook page. Facebook had evolved to incorporate a page solely for businesses. But unlike the first time in which Facebook business pages was used, these pages now has the tool that marketers can use to measure their success in Facebook marketing.

Facebook Ads 

Another popular use of Facebook in Internet Marketing is its Ads. Similar to how Google Ads works, Facebook Ads allows for strategic targeting of customers and clients by taking note of their interests. This way, businesses can easily target their clients. However, unlike the use of Facebook pages, Facebook Ads require a fee.

Facebook Applications (Apps) 

Facebook Applications, or Apps, have also been used as a marketing tool in Facebook. Rather than to use ads, many businesses have hired expert Philippines web developer which can provide them a way to market their business without having to be too obvious as to scare their clients or customers. One popular way is to use Facebook games, which are also considered as apps, to market their business, such as their products and services.

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Different Popular Facebook Marketing Techniques

What makes Facebook Applications or Apps a popular tool in web marketing? Facebook, other than a popular socialization media in the World Wide Web, is also known as one of today’s most popular and in-demand web marketing medium. 

Facebook Marketing

Facebook marketing is a popular method in web marketing which involves the use of Facebook. It is part of a larger web marketing technique called SMO or Social Media Optimization which aims to use social media websites as a means for marketing a business.

However, because of the many techniques used in Facebook marketing, many web experts have started to offer it as a separate service. This is when Facebook Applications or Apps became a prominent service across the world in which the demand for expert Facebook application developers became apparent. 

Different Popular Facebook Marketing Techniques

There are many popular techniques used in Facebook Marketing other than just Facebook Applications. Here are some of those: 

Facebook Pages

One of the first methods that web marketers used in Facebook Marketing is by simply creating their business’ Facebook profile.

In the past, even before Facebook had integrated the creation of business pages, along with fan pages and other popular types of profile pages in Facebook, many businesses have used Facebook not only as a base for web marketing, but also their own and free website. 

Not only did they have a way for showcasing their services or products, the use of Facebook pages also allowed them to market their business freely in Facebook. One method of doing this was to add people to their page then market their business to those that agreed. 

Another is the use of Facebook’s tagging system. With this, businesses can easily expose their business’ products and services in Facebook without having to add more people to them. This method also gives them the chance to attract more market.

Facebook Ads

In addition to the use of Facebook Pages, another popular technique used in Facebook Marketing is using Facebook’s own Ads. It is similar to the use of Google Adwords in which Facebook can accurately pinpoint those that may have interest in a business’ products or services by taking note of the user’s interests, as well as the kinds of activities happening in their wall.

Facebook Applications or Apps

One of the most recent techniques used in Facebook Marketing is the use of Facebook Apps. The advantage of using Facebook Apps is that the opportunities are endless, as long as Facebook allows the creation of third-party applications that users may freely use.

One way of using Facebook Apps is by making a Facebook game which aims to market a business’ service and product. But one of today’s most popular uses of Facebook Apps that many expert Facebook applications developers have made is with promotions.

It’s functions are similar to Facebook’s tagging system, but is much easier to add people as well as share to anybody interested in the promotion. The advantage of using this is that businesses can track the success of their marketing campaign across Facebook, and also allows them to increase their fan-based just as easily.