For the past two years the social media phenomena, Twitter, has exceeded everyone’s expectations with its success. At first, Twitter was a relatively unknown online application that people criticized for being pointless and confusing… In spite of the initial critiques, however, companies and celebrities (or maybe just Ashton Kutcher) started to recognize the amazing benefits that Twitter had to offer. Like many of those before it, Twitter was the next online app to go viral, and the rest is history.

Today Twitter is a quick and easy way to communicate with your target audience as well as an exceptional approach for finding potential new fans and/or clients. Something to think about, however, is that, while there are notable business and communication benefits, not all Twitter users are using it solely for business or “posting” purposes.

Having been ignited by Kutcher early on, a great deal of “celebrities” have taken up tweeting as well.  Today, celebrity gossip and celebrity news  also consists of what the A-list stars have been tweeting throughout their day.  Fans have become intrigued with Twitter purely because they believe they are “talking” to celebrities and can communicate with them via the site.  But are people really talking to celebrities on their Twitter pages?

Not to be the one to burst anyone’s bubble, but at Black Rhino we have clients who make less money than what some celebrities bank and they pay us to manage their social media because they don’t have the time to do it themselves. Most of the time, people hire companies to manage their social media campaigns as a means of PR, publicity, advertising and marketing.  Suffice to say, I’m sure that A-list celebrities are at the top of this list. Clients hire companies like us in order to utilize our social media services and skills to reach out to their target audience and increase their website traffic along with new potential customers. In saying that, what makes you think that you are not speaking to a social media marketing company rather than your favorite celebrity on Twitter these days?

We would all love it if our favorite celebrities like Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber were really responding to us on their social media sites, however, most likely, it’s their PR or marketing firm that they spend their pretty pennies on. Now this isn’t saying that they don’t ever look at their Twitter page, but most of the time it’s not really them. I do believe there are celebrities that do take their fans seriously such as Ellen Degeneres. I know she does have an internal team who manages her social media, she is always up to speed on what is going on in her social networks and makes reference to her Twitter posts during her show. But lets be serious, do you really think most celebrities like for instance, Barack Obama has time to be on Twitter and tweet his every move?

Keeping your company’s SEO up-to-date can be one tough job. Just when you think you know it all, something about Google and their ranking system changes in an instant. That is why you have to stop thinking about the actual way Google functions, and begin to think about how you want Google to work for you.

This may sound difficult, but really all you need to do is put yourself in Google’s shoes; take charge of the task of ranking your own results, instead of having something else do it for you. Yes, Google’s algorithm comes in handy, however you have to understand exactly how it works if you want to be successful with your company’s SEO.

The way it works is one result usually gets clicked on more than others. The user, more often than not, browses the initial page for a few seconds at maximum, and then navigates back to the results page, to find an alternate result.

In the meantime, there are other results that receive a lot of clicks too. Typically, when users click on the next result they tend to explore the page longer, and in some cases they won’t even go back to the main results page to search for anything else. They also do not alter what they are looking for. So the question is, which page is really more suitable in terms of content for their specific investigation?

Now, is when you must ask yourself if bounce rate should be a legitimate ranking factor. The ability to view both pages to decide which is better is in your hands. At this time you have to begin to think outside of the box—imagine that you are the Google algorithm, and you are in charge of ranking worldwide data for all of these information seekers. You also have over 200 signs that assist you in concluding which page should receive higher rankings.

Although Google’s algorithm may not specifically use bounce rate, they are using something that is relevant to it. It is known that the algorithm serves as a ranking system which utilizes a bounce back to the path of the SERP. However, it is unclear whether or not Google is actually using bounce rate as a factor, or if they are using a similar or specific part of it.
There have been many commentators and speculations from SEO experts about what tactics Google has chosen to go with. Google’s very own Matt Cutts had suggested in a video that bounce rate is not in any way used in their algorithm as a ranking tool. He sort of danced around the subject picking and choosing his words cautiously.

Although there may be many theories and educated suggestions behind the Google algorithm, it is not known exactly what goes into the making of the new Panda update. This just means you really have to concentrate on creating your page to be the best of the best.

You want your page to be the solution to the problem that the users are experiencing. In reality, that is the main focus of search ranking normally. All search indicators aside, you still want to make sure that you are distributing top notch solutions for the inquiry.

Remember, you want to prevent visitors from exiting your page, before they are even able to finish what they were looking to do. So stay on your tip-toes when it comes to keeping your site updated with its best content. Make sure that you give them the answer that they are looking for, that way they won’t have to go elsewhere to find it!

What are your feelings about bounce rate in the post-Panda atmosphere? Let us know its effects on you!

People always ask me my thoughts on whether they should go with a custom Content Management System (CMS) or an open source CMS like Drupal or WordPress.  As a developer I should argue that a custom Content Management System (CMS) is the way to go and is the better option for anyone looking to manage their own website. By convincing clients to go with a custom built CMS, developers lock in clients for the long term. Why? Because custom code is like a custom designed dress or piece of art – not many other professionals will want to mess around with another person’s original work. Granted, you MAY find someone who is willing to tackle the challenge of deciphering and/or reworking someone else’s custom code.  However, chances are that you’ll also be paying double, if not triple what you originally were paying your first developer. Not to mention the fact that custom CMS’s tend to cost more up front to begin with.

I’ve dealt with MANY open source systems and MANY custom systems in my career.  In general, my experience with custom CMS systems has not been very good. I have had clients whose original CMS web development companies went out of business and needed to have their website rebuilt from scratch. Another company upped the maintenance three times the amount their clients were originally paying, and another company had their system hacked…

I will admit, there are  advantages to both custom and open source content management systems, along with the disadvantages to both. There are times when a custom system makes more sense. However, 9 out of 10 times I will never recommend doing a custom CMS in all honesty. Here are some things to consider while deciding which CMS is best for you.

Price

Price is a huge factor in everyone’s decision. What will be cheaper for you in the short term and/or the long term?

Custom: Companies try to justify unreasonably high costs for a “custom” CMS in saying that they are building you a system from scratch.  Well, most of the time these companies aren’t even building all these components from scratch. Most companies already have a base that was built, that they say is from “scratch” but it really isn’t.

Open Source: Anyone that says open source is free is wrong. It’s not free, but it most definitely will be cheaper to go with an open source system that already has the core of what is needed to develop. So now you are just paying your developer to install the system and theme it, rather than paying someone to create the system, install it, and then theme the system. With open source you basically knock out a step.

Faster To Build

One key factor in your decision could be how fast you may need your website up and running with a certain level of functionality.

Custom: Everything has to be built from “scratch”. I’m not sure how one can argue that a custom CMS would be quicker to build. They could run into one small problem and be stuck for days, weeks, or even months. Not only that, but if you want specific features that they do not already have capability of, they will have to build it from the bottom up. There’s no searching for already built modules, as there would be with open source.

Open Source: Developing in open source is basically like buying a bed from IKEA. You take it out of the box and assemble it to look the way it’s suppose to. It’s much faster than building the bed from scratch (as if you were to go to Home Depot, and buy the plywood, glue, nails, etc.). By using an open source system you are provided with the tools you need to succeed and a ton of support to get the job done quickly and efficiently.

Scalability

Some developers will argue that by using their custom CMS they can do anything you want. Using an open source system like Drupal, so can we! With the right amount of time and money you can do anything in an open source system. But what’s the big difference?

Custom: If you want something added to the system that is simple, but still has not been built by the developer and it’s not in their “library” your going to have to pay that developer to develop this module.

Open Source: If you had an open source system 8 out of 10 times there already is a module built for exactly what you want, and if there isn’t they can take a module that already is built and modify it to do what you need. Plus there are so many users that use open source, that there are constantly developers out there developing to make the system better and more secure.

Security

Some of the best programmers have been hacked. Remember, there is always someone out there smarter than you. Therefore, you are always susceptible to getting hacked regardless of whether you are using a custom or an open source CMS.

Custom: So you go with a custom CMS and your not technical at all… How do you determine if this developer is skilled enough to build a great system that is secure. What if their idea of a CMS is a crappy back end that just allows you to edit text. And they leave the entire back end open, or they don’t encrypt the passwords (believe me I’ve seen a few of my current clients’ past systems and it has happened!).

Open Source: “Open source is insecure….” First off, this is a common misconception. It obviously depends on what system you use, however, it is NOT insecure. Let’s use Drupal as a great example: there are thousands of developers out there that use this open source system and keep it up to date to keep hackers out. If you use the system correctly and make sure you update the system, then you won’t have any issues.

Maintenance

You will end up paying more on maintenance for a custom system then an open source system hands down.

Custom: A custom system means you are married to the company who built your system until you decide to divorce them and split what you shared. You may be able to grab the design, but they are going to grab their custom system right back from you. If anything needs to be changed, your ex will have to make the changes (and we all know how dangerous that can be). There is no getting price quotes or potentially moving companies. You have to literally go through an entire divorce to get rid of them!

Open Source: All updates are done by developers around the world. Therefore you don’t have to pay your developer to actually update the modules. You just have to pay them to update your modules with other people’s updates. Therefore, it’s much cheaper and more readily available!  In addition, if you want something done most likely it’s already been done. So you don’t have to pay your developer to develop and install, just have to pay to install. If you want a custom module done, there are so many functions already built into an open source systems, that it’s also easier to develop custom modules as well.