Pixotri Technologies: 2015-04-26

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Leveraging Wikidata To Gain A Google Knowledge Graph Result

Back in December 2014, Google announced that it would be shutting down Freebase, a repository of structured data that helps power Google’s Knowledge Graph, and working to migrate all its data to Wikidata.

But how does Wikidata measure up? How can marketers leverage Wikidata to help a business become an entity and gain a Knowledge Graph result? I have personally had success with gaining Knowledge Graph entries for my clients and myself. Below, I have outlined the steps you can take to both gain and enhance a Knowledge Graph result.

Before getting into the steps, I want to break down the different elements of the Knowledge Graph. This will give you a better idea of how each element can be influenced, as Google does use different sources to power Knowledge Graph results.

Knowledge Graph Success

Here are two examples of Knowledge Graph results I was able to to gain. The first is for myself, and the second is for Elite SEM (my employer).

Steps To Gaining A Knowledge Graph Result

Here are the steps you can take to gain and influence Knowledge Graph results. I have personally tested and proven these methods.

1. Create a Wikipedia profile if you currently do not have one. (Note that you do not need a Wikipedia profile to become an entity and gain a Knowledge Graph entry, but it can definitely help.)

2. Create a profile on Wikidata.org if you currently do not have one. If you currently have a Freebase profile, be sure to reference it in your Wikidata profile using the Freebase Identifier element. (See an example here.)

3. Implement organization schema markup on your website (or, use person markup if you are doing this for an individual). Be sure to specify your logo, social profiles, Wikidata and your Wikipedia profile using the SameAs element. Google and Schema resource pages:

The organization schema markup can be implemented using the Microdata or JSON formats.

Microdata

oogle resource page: https://developers.google.com/+/web/badge/

Knowledge Graph Issues

Google’s Knowledge Graph is not without its issues and flaws. Some of my clients experienced issues that required a bit of trial and error to resolve. I cannot disclose the client names, but here are the issues they experienced.

Client 1

This client’s Knowledge Graph result was heavily influenced by their Wikipedia profile. The Wikipedia profile was created a long time ago and lacked proper references. It was eventually flagged for not having proper references by a Wikipedia user and subsequently removed.

I worked with the client to identify quality references and resubmitted to Wikipedia. The Wikipedia profile was restored after two weeks; however, the client’s Knowledge Graph panel did not return. I then created a Wikidata profile for the client and had them insert the restored Wikipedia profile link in their organization schema markup on their site using the sameAs element. Once this was implemented, the client’s Knowledge Graph panel returned.

sameAs element example:

Client 2

I helped this client gain a Knowledge Graph result in Q3 of 2014. However, due to a template issue on their website, they were unable to specify their logo in the organization schema markup.

In Q1 of 2015, the logo of a company with the same brand name started to appear in the client’s Knowledge Graph result. This, of course, had all the brand folks going crazy. I immediately started filing feedback reports in the SERP advising Google of the incorrect logo. I did this every day for a week, and Google finally updated the logo element with the correct image.

Reiterating to the client that is it important to specify your logo in the organization schema markup, the client is now working on making their logo accessible.

Example:

Clicking on the feedback link under a Knowledge Graph result allows you to flag incorrect content.

Final Thoughts

Please note that the steps above do not guarantee that you, your client, or your company will appear in Knowledge Graph results.

Google uses a variety of criteria to determine whether or not to display a Knowledge Graph panel for a given query, and the search giant has not publicly disclosed these criteria. However, by following the process above, you will greatly increase your chances of appearing in this coveted spot in the search engine results.

SEO solution

We employ a variety of proven recommended techniques to increase your chance for top rankings.These include optimizing your website's page,content,and structure to drive traffic to your site for specific keyword research.Pixotri technology is a creative house developing quality web designs, E-Commerce solution. SEO services and Gaming development .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xSWDsTYC8

Google Launches Custom Voice Actions For Third Party Apps

Google is further expanding Voice Actions to third party apps to allow users to reach into apps on Android devices, beyond simply launching them. That’s according to a post this week directed to Android developers.

In some cases this appears to enable a version of in-app search:

Today, we launched our first set of partners for custom Google voice actions on Android. This feature will enable people to say things like “Ok Google, listen to NPR” or “Ok Google, show attractions near me on TripAdvisor.” We’re currently piloting custom voice actions with a select group of partners, but we plan to open it up more widely in the future — and we’d love to hear your ideas for actions you’d like to implement.

This development was rumored roughly a year ago. We wrote about it at the time. And it comes just as Microsoft is expanding Cortana integration of third party apps.

The site Android Police dubbed the Google initiative, “OK Google Everywhere.” In parallel, Google has further expanded the range of developers and app publishers participating in Google Now, recently adding 70 new apps.

Rather than “mobile friendly” conventional search results, it’s Google Now and Voice Actions that represent the future of search for Google on mobile devices. These user experiences are much more functional and better adapted for smartphones and their usage contexts.

Monetization of these user experiences is a different issue however.

SEO solution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xSWDsTYC8

Google: The Mobile Friendly Algorithm Has Fully Rolled Out

Google said the mobile-friendly algorithm is fully rolled out, but there are still some mobile friendly pages that do not see the score since indexing still takes time.

Google has confirmed with me that the mobile friendly algorithm is now fully rolled out to all data centers and fully in place.

Gary Illyes from Google confirmed this on Twitter saying “the algo is rolled out” when I asked him on Twitter “is the Google Mobile algorithm fully rolled out?”

I asked because even as of this morning, over 1.5 weeks since the April 21st launch that webmasters weren’t seeing significant changes in the mobile results, even as of this morning. But it is fully rolled out.

Gary added a caveat:

Not all pages were reindexed yet so they don’t have the new scores. Yet.

Also, there were a load of sites that became MF recently, so the actual number of sites affected decreased considerably.

So while the tracking companies and webmasters are not seeing all that much of a difference in the mobile Google results, some are indeed noticing slight changes in the mobile search results.

Will things in Google’s mobile search results change even more over the next couple weeks? I doubt it. I suspect what we see today is going to be the ‘worst’ of this mobilegeddon.

SEO solution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xSWDsTYC8

How Not To Do Local SEO In A Post-Pigeon Era

Google's Pigeon algorithm update changed the way local SEOs do business -- or at least, it should have. Columnist Neil Patel discusses how we should be breaking old habits and refocusing our local search tactics.

Not long ago, I wrote an article, explaining everything you need to know about Google’s Pigeon update, the algorithm change that took local search by storm.

Today, I’m publishing another article on Pigeon.

Why? Because in spite of the local SEO shakeup, a lot of marketers are still doing it wrong. I understand why this might be the case. Not only was Pigeon confusing, but it also asked us to break some of our long-ingrained local optimization habits. Repeatedly performing the same local optimization tasks time and again has ossified them into a fixture of local marketing.

We need to shake things up a little bit. In this article, I’m going to explain some of the things that should change in the post-Pigeon era of local SEO. If you’ve been unaware of how local SEO has changed in the past few months, this is your chance to get up to speed.

Stop Focusing On City Search Queries. Instead, Target Neighborhood Searches.

One of the major algorithmic shifts around Penguin was the way that geolocation was redesigned. Instead of identifying cities as single geographical entities, Penguin sliced and diced cities up into neighborhoods.

Mike Blumenthal, whose career is focused on local search, explained it like this:

One major change was a shifting of the calculations for distance around a search. Typically, but not always, Google reduced the search radius.

At least two things happened with the search radius reduction. First, because the geographical radii grew smaller, there are more neighborhoods. Obviously, some local businesses that were in Neighborhood A may now be in Neighborhood B.

Second, some businesses lost rank for their target neighborhood. Because of the redrawing of geographical boundaries, different businesses ended up in different places. Some businesses had a hard time dealing with this at first. Essentially, they believed that they had been edged out of business. The reality is that they were simply part of a new geographical entity and had to retarget their marketing efforts accordingly.

With the redrawing of geographical boundaries, here’s what you need to keep in mind.

If you’re in a larger city (with neighborhoods), don’t focus your online marketing efforts and search terms exclusively on your city name, but rather on your neighborhood name.

Don’t change your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) information. NAP consistency is just as important as it has always been. Changing your NAP will cause more harm than good.

Find out what neighborhood you’re in. Find out where you have the strongest geographical showing, and capitalize on your presence there. This is your new geographical environment, so get comfortable.

Discover any neighborhood synonyms, and use these in your online marketing. One challenge of the geographical shakeup is that neighborhoods have different names, depending on whom you’re talking with. A local may call it “Uptown,” while a map-gazing tourist might call it “The Art District.”

Which name do you use in your content marketing efforts? Use both! If people are searching for both, then you want to get in front of both types of query.

A single neighborhood can have many names. The algorithm knows it, too. In some cases, two different searches for the same region will surface the same results.

Stop Pursuing Indiscriminate Directory Listings. Instead, Optimize Your Directory Placement For The Top-Ranked Directories.

This one is a gem. Let me explain why.

Remember in the old days of SEO, where you would throw your NAP into every directory, snag a link, and get instant rank lift? Yeah, that doesn’t happen anymore.

Directories still play a role in local SEO, but their role has shifted. Some directories are valuable. Some directories are crap.

So, how do you know which ones to get listed in? Seek to be listed in the directories that are ranking the highest. Often, these are right underneath the local packs.

Let me give you an example. If you had an Italian restaurant serving the Paradise area of Las Vegas, you would be getting search traffic and SERP impressions through queries like this one: [italian restaurant paradise las vegas].

Here’s what the desktop search engine results look like for that query:

You can’t outrank the local pack. Not gonna happen.

But you can look at the top directories for that query. Ferraro’s is clearly dominating (higher ratings and more reviews are the cause), but what are the top directories you should be targeting for your Italian joint? Based on the results page, you’re looking at:

1.Yelp

2.Open Table

3.Trip Advisor

4.Urban Spoon

5.In that order.

Let’s look at something a bit more niche: coffee. Here are the local results for a coffee query near Orlando, Florida:

Yelp has the top three spots in the organic results after the local pack. If you’re a roaster or brewer in Lakeland, you’d better optimize the heck out of your Yelp listing.

Let’s admit it: Yelp is important. Some users may include “yelp” as part of their search query in order to get Yelp-specific results. Other users look for “reviews” as part of their query, which often brings up directories only (seldom local packs).

Results vary from region to region. Do your own local query variations in order to determine what the highest-ranking directories are, then focus on creating the best profile in that directory that you possibly can.

Don’t Focus Solely On NAPs, Reviews, And Directories. You Should Also Do Content Marketing And Link-Earning.

Local SEO focuses on the citations, NAP consistency, and reviews. But let’s not forget about domain authority and good old-fashioned content and links.

Moz’s local search experts estimate that on-page signals are responsible for 21% of local ranking factors. Those on-page signals include traditional SEO features such as the presence of the keyword in the title, the domain authority of the page, and the presence of evergreen and optimized content.

Local SEO expert Mary Bowling explains that “[t]o appear in the shrunken local packs, you must now rank in the top 3 positions, which are usually influenced by organic rankings.” You can adjust your organic results through the tried-and-true methods of increasing and improving your content output, enhancing your link earning potential, and engaging in the search optimization practices that are standard for any SEO endeavor.

Why does this matter? When Pigeon occurred, many of the 7-packs dropped to 3-packs. The three remaining listings were presumed to be ranked based on traditional (rather than local) SEO factors. Moz explained it this way:

If your 7-packs have shrunken to 3-packs, striving to build greater organic authority may help you more than purely local signals like citations and reviews.

Andrew Shotland expressed it simply and clearly. His message could be summed up in two sentences: “Forget local tricks. Do basic SEO stuff.”

My best advice to clients would be to do “real local SEO sh*t.” Lots of local SEOs, especially at large firms, have focused on the local part of the algorithm to the exclusion of localized organic search. The Pigeon update, with its fusing of the local and organic ranking factors, appears to push us back to basic SEO tactics. Get good, local, links. Create quality content. Eliminate technical issues on your website and Google My Business page. Do this and you will be ahead of the vast majority of local businesses in the turd covered post-pigeon landscape.

Greg Gifford explained that the key to local SEO success was two-fold:

Earn awesome links.

While the “be awesome” missive is perhaps cliché, the “earn awesome links” factor is critical. Pigeon is a local algorithm improvement, but it has ironically brought us back to a fixture of SEO: links.

In spite of the fact that Pigeon has changed a lot of things, we can’t forget that it hasn’t changed everything. One must keep in mind the importance of other organic methods of optimizing for search.

Conclusion

Local SEO is always in flux, and the Google’s mobile shakeup will no doubt have an impact, too. What’s often ignored in the discussion is the fundamental reality that the vast majority of the queries for local businesses are coming from mobile devices.

For a local website to rank organically, they must not only have their local SEO up to snuff, but they must also have their website responsively designed and enhanced.

Maybe the most practical bit of post-Penguin advice is “don’t panic.” Maybe you’ve disappeared from a local pack, been ousted by a neighbor, or simply aren’t sure what neighborhood you’re a part of. It’s okay. Keep focusing on the basics of good marketing — with or without a complete understanding of Pigeon — and you’ll get there eventually.

SEO solution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xSWDsTYC8

5 Ways to Use Competitive PPC Intelligence to Dominate Your Competition

PPC advertising is very competitive.

Not only do you compete with direct competitors, but you also compete against large businesses that drive up the cost per click for the terms you make money from.

It’s incredibly competitive and even cut-throat at times, which is why you need every advantage you can get.

Competitive PPC intelligence is one of those advantages.

With competitive PPC intelligence, you learn which terms your competitors are bidding on, what ad copy they’re using, and which landing pages they’re directing traffic to. You also learn things like approximately how much they’re spending on PPC ads and what SEO terms they’re ranking for.

I’m going to explain five ways you can use competitive PPC intelligence to dominate your competition so you can drive down your cost per click and boost the ROI from PPC campaigns.

#1: Find Out Who You’re Competing Against

The first step is to figure out who you’re competing against. Sun Tzu explains why this is important in The Art of War.

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.

In PPC as in war, it pays to know who you’re competing against. Once you do, you can formulate your strategy to outperform them.

The easiest way to do this is to use Auction Insights inside your AdWords account to see which companies you are bidding against for your keywords.

Once you have the URLs form AdWords auction insight you can use a competitive PPC intelligence tool like iSpionage to find their profitable keywords, ads, and landing pages. Or you can enter your URL, and then browse the list of competitors to see who you’re up against.

Typically, you’ll be surprised when you do this since there will be advertisers listed that you didn’t realize you were competing against.

Uber provides a great example of this. They clearly compete head-to-head with Lyft and other ridesharing apps, but when it comes to PPC, they compete the most with job sites and rental car companies.

That might come as a surprise, but as you see in the image below, they compete more with Indeed and Expedia than they do with Lyft and other ridesharing apps when it comes to PPC.

So why does this matter?

It matters because your ads need to stand out against the ones they’re being shown with. If those ads are by Lyft, then you want to find a way to find out from Lyft, but if those ads are by Expedia, you might need to find an entirely different way to stand out.

The point here is that your strategy is influenced by who you’re competing against, and you won’t know what that strategy is until you know who it is that you’re actually competing against, which is why you need competitive PPC intelligence on your side.

#2: Write Better Ads

Helping you write better ads is another way that competitive PPC intelligence is helpful.

As mentioned above, you first need to identify who your top competitors are. But once you have, the next step is to study their ad copy so you can write ads that stand out.

And this might actually be the most important tip in this article. Why? Because the better your ads are, the higher your click-through-rate will be, and the higher your click-through-rate is, the lower your cost per click will be. In turn, the lower your cost per click is, the higher your ROI will be.

Do you see how that works? Boosting your click-through rate ultimately boosts the overall ROI for your campaign, which makes your ad copy extremely important since that what triggers the whole process.

So how you do boost your CTR? The easiest way is to write ads that stand out from the competition, get searchers attention, and match what they’re looking for.

The ad below from Wordstream is a great example. While everyone is writing about keyword research tools, they write about FREE keyword research. This makes their ad copy stand out, and if successful, this lowers Wordstream’s CTR and overall ROI for their campaign.

When it comes to competitive intelligence, you want to study your competitors’ ads, not so you can do something similar, but so you can write ads that stand out and get more clicks.

#3: Swipe Profitable Keywords From Large Advertisers

You can also use competitive PPC intelligence to find your competitors’ most profitable keywords. Simply enter a competitor’s URL and click "Search."

uber-url-search

On the next page, you’ll see a list of your competitor’s keywords, something you can download and begin sorting in Excel. You can also sort the keywords based on search volume and cost per click to find the most valuable terms with the greatest likelihood of boosting your campaign.

uber-keywords-download

This step is pretty straightforward, but it does take some time to implement. You can download your competitor’s keywords with the click of a button, but you’ll need to take some time to sort, find the ones that make sense for your campaign, and then add them to your current ad groups or else create new ad groups. The good news is that in the end it’s totally worth it because you’ll identify new keywords and ad groups to bid on that you never would have found otherwise.

#4: Optimize Landing Pages

A stat that’s been going around CRO circles lately is that for every $92 spent on generating traffic, only $1 is spent on conversion rate optimization. Pretty crazy, right?

CRO is one of the most important factors for PPC success. If you’re able to double conversion rates, then you’re cost per acquisition will be cut in half. Yes, you had that correctly. A 100 percent increase in conversions lowers your CPA by 50 percent.

And that’s why CRO is so valuable for PPC.

The good news is that you can use competitive intelligence to boost your conversion rates.

With competitive PPC intelligence, you get access not only to you competitors’ keywords and ad copy, but you also get access to their landing page URLs. By clicking on these URLs, you’ll see which landing pages they’re directing traffic to, and by taking notes, you can come up with new A/B testing ideas or identify entirely new layouts and approaches to try.

In the example below, FlowerDeliveryExpress.com uses a coupon for Google traffic to boost conversions. After seeing that, you might think, "Hmm…maybe we should try a Google specific coupon to see how well it works." And just like that, you have a new A/B test to run.

SEO solution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xSWDsTYC8

Personal B2B PPC – 5 Things You Need to Ensure Success

Oh, how the buying process has changed with B2B. According to Sirius Decisions, more than 67 percent of the customer’s buying journey is now done digitally, and 57 percent of the actual purchase decision is complete before a customer even contacts a supplier.

And why is this? Because marketing is no longer about B2B, or even B2C. Marketing is now about being there when the buyer is searching – it’s about "B2Me."

B2B marketing has become more of a personal buying journey. Buyers are empowered – they do extensive research and use social channels to get reviews and support from peers. They are no longer waiting for a salesperson to call them. They take the first step in the buying cycle. And with longer sales cycles and competition, it’s important to use strategic inbound tactics such as paid search to lead your prospective clients to purchase from you.

Marketing in the B2B world isn’t easy. And with paid search, it can get even more complicated. Keywords can be very expensive and competition is very intense. However, there are things you can put in place that can help with your B2B paid search. Here are some key points to keep in mind to guide buyers through their purchase decision process.

1. Be the Buyer’s Caretaker

Taking care of your buyer means providing them relevant content that answers their questions. With paid search ads, it’s important to speak to their pain points. What keeps them up at night? What problems are they trying to solve? Use language in your ad copy that they understand and that is relevant to their industry.

Think of being the buyer’s concierge. You assist them, help them make decisions, and provide them with everything they need through their journey.

2. Use Offers That Lead to the Next Step

With B2B, it’s important to provide some type of offer that will speak to what the buyer is searching for. It’s all about providing the right information at the right time. Whether it’s downloading a white paper or reading a case study, ensure the offer will take the buyer to that next step in the nurture process.

3. Use Retargeting

Retargeting is a great way to reconnect with people that have been to your site, whether they have converted or not. With paid search retargeting, it’s an idea way to remarket to B2B customers with a special offer or promotion. It’s another way to create a "personalized" experience for the buyer.

4. Long-Tail Keywords

Looking further down the funnel are the long-tail keywords that can be your opportunity for success. People using long-tail searches are more apt to be closer to buying. Focus on what happens at the bottom of the funnel, and ensure you have the right ad copy in place. Use your SQR reports to find additional keywords to add to your campaigns as well.

5. Know Who Your Buyers Are

Persona-based marketing provides insights on your target buyers. With more decision-makers in the buying process and buying becoming more self-directed, it’s important to know who your buyer is, and how to best connect with them.

But what’s a buyer persona? It’s a model of an atypical buyer and their buying behavior. This helps companies target their ideal buyer, and helps the sales team target the hotter prospects. Conducting in-depth buyer research, creating buyer personas, and understanding your buyer’s goals can be a time-intensive process. But gathering these insights on your customers can help you laser-focus your paid search marketing efforts to the right audience.

SEO solution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xSWDsTYC8

Should You Manage SEO In-House Or Work With An Agency?

For most entrepreneurs, especially those of new or small businesses, the prospect of SEO is burdened by one major factor: cost. Optimizing for search engines is a long process, and as a result, its ultimate payoff is delayed and uncertain. Paying a fixed rate for your SEO efforts over the course of several months would eventually start to see a small return, and then a larger return as the months continued. If implemented properly, a successful SEO campaign would eventually return every cent that was initially invested into it.

Few entrepreneurs have the capital, time, or patience to go through with this long-term model, especially when there’s no explicit guarantee of success. Most realize that SEO is important, due to the sheer popularity of online search for finding information in the modern era, but need to carefully consider the costs and risks before moving forward.

The two main options for an SEO campaign are trying to do it yourself, with your own internal resources, or to partner with an SEO agency or freelance professional, who can do the work for you. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages, depending on what type of person or agency you hire, but ultimately, one will be more cost effective for your campaign than the other.

The Upfront Costs

The most important financial factor for most entrepreneurs will be the upfront costs of either an in-house SEO team or an agency. It’s possible to try and optimize your web presence yourself—but you’ll quickly find the sheer amount of effort required to make a real impact extends beyond your current capacity or expertise. Therefore, the main options you face are hiring an agency for a long-term contract or hiring a dedicated SEO expert (or SEO team) to do the work for you.

Agencies tend to offer package plans based around your needs. I’ve seen some agencies offer extremely basic SEO services for $500 a month or less, but you tend to get what you pay for. Typical SEO packages range from $1,000 to $10,000 a month, depending on the size of your business and your current needs, and can vary depending on what other services you want to add. One advantage to agencies is that you can piecemeal the work and only pay for what you intend to use.

The cost of an additional team resource depends on the level of experience you’re looking for and the location of your company. In a mid- to large-sized city, an SEO generalist with a few years of experience can make $60,000 to $100,000 per year. If you hire two or more search marketers, those costs can quickly escalate further. Alternatively, you can hire a part-time contractor for a lower wage, but you’ll get less total work done and at a lower level of expertise (in most cases).

SEO solution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xSWDsTYC8

The 10 Best Mobile Games You Can Buy Right Now

Overwhelmed by the App Store? Think Google Play’s too clunky? With so many mobile games being released every week, finding the ones worth a download can be a daunting task. Most often that means sticking to the top-grossing charts, but you’ll often miss some great stuff if you don’t dig deeper.

Rather than have you do the digging, though, we’re more than happy to handle the shovel. Here are the 10 best new mobile games of April 2015, and be sure to check out last month’s picks in case you missed them.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (iOS | Android | Free)

There’s a reason why Hearthstone, the digital collectible card game from Warcraft maker Blizzard Entertainment, is a hit: it’s easy to start, tough to master, and wildly addictive the whole way through. And now it’s even harder to avoid. The game was recently ported to smartphones (it was previously available on PCs and iPads), and the latest expansion, Blackrock Mountain, adds a bunch of new cards. If you keep missing it, perhaps now’s the time to try.

Attack the Light: Steven Universe RPG (iOS | Android | $2.99)

The Steven Universe cartoon has developed a massive following, so it’s no surprise the sweet, snarky show would get its own mobile game. What is surprising, however, is how good it is. Played in the style of games like Super Mario RPG, it’s incredibly easy to learn, with an active combat system that rewards careful planning and timing. The series’ stellar art also makes a grand showing.

Lost Within (iOS | Android | $6.99)

Amazon Game Studios has released a handful of mobile games on Kindle devices, but Lost Within is its first try at branching out to other systems — and it’s a winner. The survival-horror game is set in an abandoned insane asylum and offers up some solid scares. Impressive, console-quality graphics really help it stand out. Just make sure the kiddies don’t get hold of it. Nightmare city.

Game development

The employees at Pixotri Game Studio have vast experience in creating games and are always trying to push the boundaries of technology and creativity. The games are created using the most popular game enigine Unity, which provides robust, high performance, platform independent solution to creating games.

Pixotri technology is a creative house developing quality web designs, E-Commerce solution. SEO services and Gaming development .

Contact us for your mobile gaming requirements email-info@pixotritechnologies.com. Visit our website: www.pixotritechnologies.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xSWDsTYC8

8 Tips for Running a Successful eCommerce Business

Over the past decade, the global marketplace has undergone a substantial shift. No longer are businesses limited by geographical borders or location, but more by the amount of creativity they can marshal and their willingness to adapt to new technologies.

In particular, entrepreneurs and business owners who are willing to launch and run an eCommerce business may position themselves to enjoy an enormous level of success.

The State of the eCommerce Industry

One of the beauties of the eCommerce industry is that there doesn’t appear to be any essential limit to strong and steady growth. In fact, overall sales volume and other vital metrics in the field have dramatically increased each year for at least the past decade.

Just consider the following statistics curated by Selz, an online selling tool:

An incredible 80 percent of Internet users have purchased something online at least once, while 50 percent have made a purchase more than once.

Roughly 71 percent of shoppers believe they’ll find better deals online, as opposed to shopping in brick-and-mortar stores.

The average Gen X consumer spends 15 percent more online than a Gen Y shopper.

The total number of online shoppers in the US is expected to exceed 206 million in 2015 … and 215 million by 2018.

Running a Successful eCommerce Business

If you own an existing brick-and-mortar store and have thought about launching an eCommerce branch — or perhaps have an idea for a completely new business that you think might work effectively as an eCommerce operation — now is the time to act. These markets will only continue to grow more crowded in the coming months and years.

Although it may be impossible to address some of the very specific and personal facets of every eCommerce venture, the 8 general tips below have helped many small business owners get off on the right foot:

Build Strategic Partnerships

It’s rare that an eCommerce website becomes successful on its own. No matter what your experience or skill level may be, you can probably benefit from forming strategic partnerships and aligning your new brand with firms that have already established sturdy brand equity and influence.

Look for opportunities wherever you can and find ways you might be able to help other brands whenever possible.

Drive Traffic Through Targeted Landing Pages

While there’s something to be said for attracting large amounts of organic traffic through search engines, the more targeted your traffic is, the higher your conversion rates will be. Regardless of whether you sell subscriptions, digital downloads, physical products, or something else, the best way to drive that focused site traffic is to nudge users from social media to secure landing pages that invite them further into the conversion funnel.

If you can find a way to integrate payments into the landing pages themselves, that’s even better.

Narrow Your Focus

While you may think you have a great idea, be careful not to launch an eCommerce venture that’s too broad.

“I’ve got news for you, the chances are there are hundreds of other people that are thinking the same thing and are already doing it,” says entrepreneur Sean Ogle.

While your overall idea may be good, you’ll strengthen your position if you can find a way to specialize it further and capture a true niche market. The total number of customers in that market might be significantly less, but the potential for carving out a loyal following is much higher.

Ogle uses the example of selling tablet cases and exclusively targeting Kindle Fire users instead of trying to encompass iPads, Galaxies, and Kindles.

Don’t Build a PPC Foundation

There’s nothing inherently wrong with pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements, but you probably don’t want to place your brand’s foundation on a PPC-heavy strategy. Use these ads with discretion; focus your time and resources on building brand awareness and driving organic leads instead.

Have a Comprehensive Content Strategy

The best way to drive organic leads is to focus on a content-heavy strategy. While the ongoing costs of developing and publishing steady, quality content will likely seem high, it almost always pays off in a quantifiable manner.

Start with a blog, share your posts on social media, then work on connecting with other industry publications and websites.

Optimize all Product Listings

As for the site itself, optimization should be a priority at all levels. When it comes to individual product listings, focus on creating unique and keyword-rich meta descriptions, optimizing product images, and using unique, descriptive sales copy.

Harness the Power of Social

According to Shopify, in 2014 eCommerce orders spawned from social networking sites increased by an incredible 202 percent. A large part of this is attributable to the fact that people value the opinions of their peers and are automatically more interested in something if a friend references or shares a link.

In order to use this to your advantage, try to invest heavily in social media, both by incorporating elements into product listings and setting up a heavy social media presence on such sites as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Split Test Absolutely Everything

There’s no longer any excuse to avoid split testing. New software and resources make the process as simple as dragging and dropping various site elements in order to see which items lead to conversions and which ones fail. By paying attention to the specific details, you can increase sales with comparatively little effort.

Don’t Be Afraid of Learning

While eCommerce businesses offer the potential for lucrative returns, they’re by no means easy or effortless. You’ll make mistakes along the way, and it’s important to use each experience as a learning opportunity.

By keeping that in mind — as well as the foregoing eight tips — you’ll position yourself for long-term success.

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Mobile’s strategy is the key to any business success in todays digital world. Pixotri technologies works one-on-one with businesses and individual product lines to develop a comprehensive mobile presence that complements your existing brand identity while building out your mobile brand. Contact us for your mobile app development requirements.

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Apple Loop: iPhone Demolishes Galaxy S6, Apple Watch Exposed, iPad Dominates Tablet Market

Taking a look back at another week of news from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop looks at the industrial design strength of the iPhone, Apple’s Q2 earnings call, the iPad numbers in the tablet market, new hires from BBC Radio 1, tearing down the Apple Watch, eclipsing Android Wear, echoes of Roger Moore, and secrets of the Voice Memo icon.

Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read our weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes).

Industrial Design Is The Winning Move

The discussions of iPhone vs Android (and specifically the Samsung Galaxy S6) continue to power many debates in the smartphone world, and the current range of handsets are close enough in capability and specifications to keep those conversations going.

It’s only when you switch to the industrial design aspect that there is clear air between Apple and the competition, as Rene Ritchie discusses on iMore - does it matter that ports, doors, ejection pins, and speaker grilles are not perfectly lined up?

To align everything along the edge of a device takes designing and mounting the boards in a certain way, and the ports and speakers, and the buttons and jacks, and the grills and every other detail so they all line up at exactly the right place at the end. Painstaking is likely an understatement…

I had the chance to spend several evenings with the Galaxies S6 recently and while Samsung ditched a ton of differentiation to offer a more iPhone-like product. Android stalwarts will bemoan the lack of removable battery, the lack of SD card support, and the lack of waterproofing. My reaction was to bemoan the lack of deep, detail oriented design culture and pride in craft.

Because once you know the back of the fence wasn’t painted, not only can you never un-know it, you can never stop wondering what else wasn’t given that same care and consideration.

Is the workmanship of the iPhone the winning move from Apple?

Another Monster Quarter From Apple

Apple’s quarterly earnings report was released on Monday, and while they might not match the record-breaking Q4 2014 numbers, Q1 2015 was another strong period for Cupertino. Headline numbers include sales of over 60 million iPhones (a forty percent increase year on year), 4.56 million Macs (up ten percent year on year), and $13.5 billion in profit (reports Apple Insider and others).

Almost every number is impressive, but looking at the revenue numbers there’s a great note from GeekWire - if you add the quarterly revenue of Microsoft… and Google… and Yahoo… and Facebook…. you’d still be $14 billion short of Apple’s $58.1 billion revenue.

iPad Still Rules The Smaller Tablet Kingdom

As for the iPad, the raw numbers from Apple are dropping, with a twenty-three percent drop in units sold compared to last year. That said, those 12.6 million units still captured twenty-seven percent of the tablet market, and continued Apple’s reign as the number on tablet manufacturer. Samsung reached second place with 19 percent, and every other manufacturer was under five percent.

Those numbers are from IDC, who also noted that tablet sales as a whole have continued to fall, with an overall six percent drop year-on-year. It also noted that cellular-enabled tablets are becoming more popular in the mix of equipment.

Apple Reaches Into BBC Radio 1

Apart from some changes in on the retail side of things, many Apple watchers are still wondering what big move Tim Cook and his team will make with the Beats acquisition. While there is no definitive answer just yet, there is a lot of speculation around some of the recent hires that Apple has made in the UK.

Following on from Apple’s hiring of the former BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe, a number of BBC back room staffers have also been hired (reports Music Business World):

One of this foursome is believed to be Lowe’s old producer at Radio 1, James Bursey. Bursey is understood to have left the Beeb on Friday and is now headed to Los Angeles to team up with Lowe.

Three more BBC producers are set to join him at Apple – but working from the company’s London office. They will enter Apple’s doors after the completion of Radio 1’s One Big Weekend event, which takes place on May 23-24. Names rumoured to be on Apple’s shopping list include Natasha Lynch and Kieran Yeates – both considered star producers at Radio 1.

Curiouser and curiouser…

Mobile app development

Contact us for your mobile app development requirements.email- info@pixotritechnologies.com. Visit our website: www.pixotritechnologies.com

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