#H3: Implementing Predictive Analytics

[maryoma00]

Customer Service Relationship Management

Introduction to Customer Service Relationship Management

What is Customer Service Relationship Management (CSRM)?

Customer Service Relationship Management (CSRM) refers to the systematic approach of managing customer interactions and enhancing service delivery to build long-term, meaningful relationships. It focuses on addressing customer needs, resolving issues efficiently, and ensuring satisfaction through a blend of technology and human effort.

While traditional CRM systems emphasize sales and marketing, CSRM zeroes in on customer support and service processes to create a seamless experience.

Why is CSRM Important for Businesses?

Enhancing Customer Loyalty Effective CSRM fosters trust and loyalty by ensuring customers feel valued and heard. Loyal customers are more likely to advocate for the brand and provide repeat business.

Improving Operational Efficiency Centralized systems and streamlined workflows reduce redundancies, enabling quicker issue resolution and better service quality.

Gaining a Competitive Advantage In today’s customer-centric market, excellent service is a key differentiator. Businesses that prioritize CSRM stand out by delivering superior customer experiences.

Core Elements of Customer Service Relationship Management

Centralized Customer Data

Consolidating Information CSRM systems centralize customer data, making it easily accessible for service teams. This includes purchase history, preferences, and previous interactions.

Leveraging Data for Personalization Using this data, businesses can offer tailored solutions, making customers feel understood and valued.

Proactive Customer Support

Anticipating Customer Needs Proactive support involves identifying potential issues before they arise, like sending reminders about product updates or addressing frequently encountered problems.

Implementing Predictive Analytics Predictive analytics tools can analyze trends and customer behavior, helping teams forecast needs and provide preemptive solutions.

Integration with CRM Systems

Synchronizing Customer Interaction Data Integrating CSRM with existing CRM systems ensures a seamless flow of information across departments, improving customer interactions.

Cross-Functional Collaboration When sales, marketing, and support teams share insights, they can collaborate more effectively to meet customer needs holistically.

Benefits of Customer Service Relationship Management

Strengthened Customer Relationships Tailored interactions and a personalized approach foster trust and encourage long-term loyalty.

Enhanced Customer Satisfaction Quick and effective resolution of queries, along with self-service options, improves overall satisfaction.

Optimized Team Productivity By automating repetitive tasks and centralizing data, service teams can focus on complex issues, boosting efficiency.

Steps to Implement a CSRM Strategy

Assessing Customer Service Needs

Identifying Pain Points Conducting surveys and analyzing feedback helps identify recurring issues and areas for improvement.

Understanding Customer Preferences Determine the preferred channels and communication styles of your customers to tailor the strategy accordingly.

Selecting the Right Tools

Features to Look For Look for tools offering ticketing systems, analytics, AI capabilities, and omnichannel support.

Popular CSRM Platforms Platforms like Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, and Freshdesk cater to businesses of various sizes and industries.

[digiellomarketing]

How to Optimize Your Content for AI-Powered Search Engines in 2025 🚀

As AI continues to reshape search engines, businesses must adapt their SEO strategies to stay ahead. AI-powered search engines like Google’s RankBrain and BERT analyze search intent more precisely than ever, making traditional SEO tactics insufficient. To maintain a competitive edge, businesses must optimize content for AI-driven algorithms.

✅ Evaluating Digital Marketing Strategies That Work

✅ Boost Your Brand with SEO and Reputation Management

✅ Best Ways to Collaborate with Developers Effectively

At Digiello Marketing, the Best Digital Marketing Agency in Delhi, we specialize in AI-optimized SEO strategies to help brands rank higher in search results. Here’s how you can optimize your content for AI-powered search engines in 2025.

1. Focus on User Intent and Conversational Queries 🧠

AI-powered search engines analyze user behavior and intent, favoring natural, conversational language. Optimize your content by:

Using long-tail keywords and question-based search queries.

Writing content in a conversational tone that mirrors user queries.

Structuring content for voice search, as AI increasingly caters to voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant.

2. Enhance Content With AI-Generated Insights 📊

AI-driven search prioritizes data-rich, authoritative content. Strengthen your content by:

Including factual statistics, expert opinions, and case studies.

Leveraging AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Surfer SEO to analyze high-ranking content.

Structuring content with clear headings (H1, H2, H3) and bullet points for better readability.

3. Implement Advanced On-Page SEO Strategies 🔍

At Digiello Marketing, we provide Top SEO Services in Delhi by focusing on:

Optimized Meta Tags & Schema Markup: Helps AI understand content context.

Internal Linking: Guides users and AI crawlers for better navigation.

Fast Loading Speeds: AI-driven search engines prioritize page speed and mobile-friendliness.

4. Improve Content Personalization with AI 🛠️

AI-powered search engines favor personalized content experiences. Optimize your strategy by:

Using predictive analytics to understand user behavior.

Creating dynamic content that adapts based on user interaction.

Integrating AI chatbots for real-time engagement.

5. Leverage AI for Social Media & Video Optimization 🎥

AI search engines now prioritize multi-format content. Stand out by:

Optimizing video content with AI-generated captions and metadata.

Using Social Media Marketing strategies to amplify content reach.

Investing in AI-driven video production—our Video Production Company in Delhi specializes in AI-optimized content creation.

Future-Proof Your SEO Strategy with Digiello! 🔥

Optimizing for AI-powered search engines requires expertise in Digital Marketing Services, SEO, and Content Strategy. Digiello Marketing—the Best Digital Marketing Agency in Delhi—offers expert solutions to help your brand stay ahead. Get in touch today! 📩

[easyecom]

 Benefits of  Using Cloud Based  Inventory Management System

One of the significant sources of aggravation for distributors is undoubtedly inventory management, but it doesn't have to be. Stock count errors may reduce your ROI on products, but cloud-based real-time tracking and reporting can keep siloed data from impairing your business operations. You may gain real-time insight into your inventory by investing in a cutting-edge SaaS distribution system, and it will also provide consistent visibility across your whole supply chain.

The newest solutions can also be hosted in the cloud thanks to tools that offer added features like offshore installation and minimal downtime, are affordable and accelerate system configuration and integration.

H3: What exactly is a Cloud-based Inventory Management System?

A cloud-based (or SaaS-based) inventory management solution is an online tool that enables you to monitor and manage all of your company's inventory-related activities. When compared to the traditional on-premise inventory management system, it has many benefits.

A traditional inventory management system entails numerous manual, error-prone procedures. You may eliminate all those errors by using an inventory management system located in the cloud. It makes it simple for you to keep track of all your incoming and outgoing goods, boosting the efficiency of your business as a whole.

Here are the benefits of using a flexible, robust cloud-based platform to manage your inventory:

Stock Tracking and Analysis

The biggest difficulty in inventory management is accuracy. Your time and resources are depleted when you commit man hours to perform cycle counting. Overstocking or understocking, which reduces your margins, is what really damages your budget.

This problem is solved by the cloud platform, which makes it possible to track inventories at all stages without the restrictions of conventional implementations. You may open a menu at any time and delve into the pallet data thanks to tracking functionality based on lot and serial numbers, as well as more detailed breakdowns into sections like sub-categories. You can analyse and decide on the status of your inventory at any time by comparing location information with other variables, such as expiration dates.

Cloud-based supply chain management

As inventory is vital ensuring profitable product distribution is what truly allows you to stay in business. Finding the ideal moment to buy fresh goods is essential to maintaining a positive inventory turnover rate. However, unless you have a contemporary cloud ERP and inventory tracking system with order and requisition automation, manually tracking inventory needs additional labour.

Supply chain management is streamlined by using cloud software to automate your procurement procedures, saving you valuable time on administrative work. You may create fully unique reporting that uses past vendor information to help you plan out your distribution management procedures based on real-world supply and demand with flexibility in how you design your data fields, strong analytics, and predictive forecasting.

Remote and Real-Time Management of Warehouses

Cloud ERP eliminates the physical limitations of operating many warehouses in the past by utilising real-time communication. By switching to cloud-based software, you get remote access that gives you visibility into any inventory location.

Cloud solutions also lift the restrictions imposed by conventional IT infrastructures that demand onsite hardware. Multi-warehouse capabilities may be scaled to meet your needs with changes for actual inventory volume, distribution centre location(s), mobile device deployment, and more due to nearly unlimited digital resources given via the cloud. Your company's overall performance may be significantly impacted by how you manage your inventory. A cloud-hosted inventory tracking system is efficient, accurate, scalable, and practical management techniques support corporate growth. An orthodox system, on the other hand, could eliminate you from the global competition due to its slow, error-prone, and ineffective processes. Additionally, you are able to concentrate on other crucial aspects like product development, sales, and customer services with a cloud-hosted management solution, which accelerates your company's total growth.

[stoweboyd]

Work Futures Daily - Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

Almost everything is done better when you reflect, rather than react.

2018-04-20 Beacon NY - We have learned a great deal in recent decades about human cognition, in the realm of science, but very little has trickled through to the conduct of business. The theme today — in the aftermath of the mess in Philadelphia, where two Black men were arrested for trespassing at a Starbucks while waiting for a friend before buying their drinks — is about countering bias and slowing down to get there.

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On Implicit Bias Training

In the aftermath of the recent expulsion of two Black men from a Philadelphia Starbucks, and the company's plan to expose the entire US staff to implicit bias training, Katie Herzog did some research:

If you haven't taken the test, it works like this: You are shown a series of images and asked to pair them with a series of words that have either strong positive or negative correlations. For instance, I just took the test for sexuality bias, and positive words (Laughing, Happy, Friend, Friendship, Glorious, Attractive, Adore, Cheer) were contrasted with negative words (Grief, Sadness, Awful, Abuse, Selfish, Bothersome, Rotten) as well as images of either two blocky female figures (of the bathroom sign variety), two male figures, or one male and one female together. My task was to pair the images with the words, and according to the test, based on how quickly I sorted them, the test determined that I show "a moderate automatic preference for Gay people over Straight people," which, frankly, I didn't need a test to point out.

This test is hugely popular, in no small part thanks to Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote about it in his best-selling book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Gladwell called the IAT "a powerful predictor of how we act in certain kinds of spontaneous situations," and, in the years since its inception, the IAT has been taken many millions of times and has been incorporated into anti-racist trainings in business, academia, criminal justice, and other fields. But, while plenty of people accept that bias is a part of the human condition (babies as young as three months show preferences for faces of their own race over others), the idea that this implicit bias leads to specific action (say, calling the police on two black men who sitting in Starbucks) is anything but proven.

She contacted Tony Greenwald, one of the creators of the test:

It's just going to be bias training theater.

Being aware of your bias does not mean you can overcome it. It is as deep in our wiring as lust and language.

One tangent that people can take to minimize bias is to slow down, to enter the state of constructive uncertainty (see 10 Work Skills for the Postnormal Era) where you actively resist coming to a conclusion, and actively remain open to gathering more information rather than following your impulse to take action.

Naom Schiber and Rachel Adams wrote about this recently:

Some experts argue that the most effective way to eliminate unconscious bias is to limit the extent to which people engage in automatic, reflexive thinking. One solution is to try to nudge workers toward more thoughtful and deliberative decision-making.

In a study involving the Seattle Police Department, researchers randomly selected a group of officers to meet with their sergeants and have an open-ended, 20-minute conversation about a recent encounter with a citizen. The encounters frequently involved minor issues like loitering — a situation analogous to the Philadelphia Starbucks incident. Over a six-week period, the officers selected to have those conversations were about 12 percent less likely to resolve an incident with an arrest.

“We were getting the police officers to slow down their thinking,” said Emily Owens, an economist at the University of California, Irvine, who was one of the researchers. Although the study didn’t look explicitly at arrest rates by race, Ms. Owens argued that, “when you’re not automating, and you’re thinking slowly, bias is less likely to influence your behavior.” (Ms. Owens stressed that the study was only suggestive and that overall the evidence on the effectiveness of bias training for police is very thin.)

On Transforming Human Resources

I am not a fan of the term 'human resources' because people aren't resources. It's a failed metaphor, but one we are lamentably stuck with.

So I am always willing to listen when some says they want to transform HR. Jonathan Shieber reports on Eightfold.ai, a new startup that might have a new tack, and apropos of the Starbucks debacle, it starts with trying to 'wring all the biases out of recruiting, hiring, professional development, and advancement':

Founded by chief executive Ashutosh Garg, a former search and personalization expert at Google and IBM research, and chief technology officer Varun Kacholia, who led the ranking team at Google and YouTube search and the News Feed team at Facebook, Eightfold.ai boasts an executive team that has a combined 80 patents and more than 6,000 citations for their research.

The two men have come together (in perhaps the most Silicon Valley fashion) to bring the analytical rigor for which their former employers are famous to the question of how best to help employees find fulfillment in the workforce.

“Employment is the backbone of society and it is a hard problem,” to match the right person with the right role, says Garg. “People pitch recruiting as a transaction… [but] to build a holistic platform is to build a company that fundamentally solves this problem,” of making work the most meaningful to the most people, he says.

How are they going to do this? By analyzing a lot of data:

“We have crawled the web for millions of profiles… including data from Wikipedia,” says Garg. “From there we have gotten data round how people have moved in organizations. We use all of this data to see who has performed well in an organization or not. Now what we do… we build models over this data to see who is capable of doing what.”

There are two important functions at play, according to Garg. The first is developing a talent network of a business — “the talent graph of a company,” he calls it. “On top of that we map how people have gone from one function to another in their career.”

Using those tools, Garg says Eightfold.ai’s services can predict the best path for each employee to reach their full potential.

In case you were wondering, Eightfold.ai is named for the eightfold path of Buddhist enlightenment. Maybe that's a stretch, but who knows.

It been well established that people are terrible at hiring — a long list of cognitive biases get in the way — so getting people out of the loop may be the best idea going. Algorithms can have biases, too, of course. And simply sucking up data about who has gotten hired in the past for what jobs could simply replicate the prejudice and inequities of yesterday into the workplace of today. They say they are working on that angle.

Eightfold.ai already counts more than 100 customers using its tools across different industries. Its software has processed more than 20 million applications to date, and increased response rates among its customers by 700 percent compared to the industry average — all while reducing screening costs and time by 90 percent, according to a statement.

A company to watch, clearly.

Quote of the Day

What is clear is that failure to meet the challenges posed by new technologies will likewise affect U.S. national security, in this case by increasing political pressures for American retrenchment, the consequences of which would be a more unstable and less prosperous world. In addition, the country will have neither the resources nor the political bandwidth to play a large global role if society is in turmoil. In such a situation, populism would be sure to grow, as would opposition to both immigration and trade despite their record of contributing to the country’s prosperity.

| Richard Haas, President, Council for Foreign Relations, The Work Ahead

On Narratives

Jeff Bezos has released his annual investors letter, in which he shared some management lessons. Amazon does not run on powerpoint, like many others. Instead, the culture is driven by narrative.

Perfect Handstands

A close friend recently decided to learn to do a perfect free-standing handstand. No leaning against a wall. Not for just a few seconds. Instagram good. She decided to start her journey by taking a handstand workshop at her yoga studio. She then practiced for a while but wasn’t getting the results she wanted. So, she hired a handstand coach. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, but evidently this is an actual thing that exists. In the very first lesson, the coach gave her some wonderful advice. “Most people,” he said, “think that if they work hard, they should be able to master a handstand in about two weeks. The reality is that it takes about six months of daily practice. If you think you should be able to do it in two weeks, you’re just going to end up quitting.” Unrealistic beliefs on scope – often hidden and undiscussed – kill high standards. To achieve high standards yourself or as part of a team, you need to form and proactively communicate realistic beliefs about how hard something is going to be –something this coach understood well.

Six-Page Narratives

We don’t do PowerPoint (or any other slide-oriented) presentations at Amazon. Instead, we write narratively structured six-page memos. We silently read one at the beginning of each meeting in a kind of “study hall.” Not surprisingly, the quality of these memos varies widely. Some have the clarity of angels singing. They are brilliant and thoughtful and set up the meeting for high-quality discussion. Sometimes they come in at the other end of the spectrum.

In the handstand example, it’s pretty straightforward to recognize high standards. It wouldn’t be difficult to lay out in detail the requirements of a well-executed handstand, and then you’re either doing it or you’re not. The writing example is very different. The difference between a great memo and an average one is much squishier. It would be extremely hard to write down the detailed requirements that make up a great memo. Nevertheless, I find that much of the time, readers react to great memos very similarly. They know it when they see it. The standard is there, and it is real, even if it’s not easily describable.

Here’s what we’ve figured out. Often, when a memo isn’t great, it’s not the writer’s inability to recognize the high standard, but instead a wrong expectation on scope: they mistakenly believe a high-standards, six-page memo can be written in one or two days or even a few hours, when really it might take a week or more! They’re trying to perfect a handstand in just two weeks, and we’re not coaching them right. The great memos are written and re-written, shared with colleagues who are asked to improve the work, set aside for a couple of days, and then edited again with a fresh mind. They simply can’t be done in a day or two. The key point here is that you can improve results through the simple act of teaching scope – that a great memo probably should take a week or more.

Chew on that for a while.

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[morethanjustmediocremusings]

Critical Article Analysis of Dixon, Schell, Giles, and Drogos’ article “The Influence of Race in Police-Civilian Interactions: A Content Analysis of Videotaped Interactions Taken During Cincinnati Police Traffic Stops”

Taylor Abouzeid

California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo

By taking a close analytical lens to the article “The Influence of Race in Police-Civilian Interactions: A Content Analysis of Videotaped Interactions Taken During Cincinnati Police Traffic Stops” by Dixon, Schell, Giles, and Drogos, the results found present a perspective on reality that expose racialized injustices. The current climate of the United States (nation-wide protesting for the Black Lives Matter movement) begs for more information and evidence of institutionalized racism, especially in the police and law enforcement sector. A background in Communication Studies and a highly influential emphasis on Women and Gender Studies provides a critical frame through which this article is observed.

Regarding the “literature review” portion of the article, the beginning paragraphs serve more as a foundation for key terms and concepts such as Communication Accommodation theory and intergroup communication, than a traditional comprehensive review. The authors chose to create a space where critical definitions could be flushed out. By giving these concepts the space needed, the article was able to move forward with a strong base in theory. The researchers failed to point out a specific hole in the literature where this article could fit in, but by providing a strong base for the rest of their research the literature review could be seen as nearly complete.

Dixon, Schell, Giles, and Drogos had three hypotheses in their article. Their first statement predicted that in comparison to White drivers, Black drivers would have a more extensive policing experience (H1). This first hypothesis was well backed with relevant research and allowed for the prediction to seem naturally occurring. The second hypothesis explored the idea that interracial communication between drivers and police would be less accommodative than same-race communication (H2). Although this specific hypothesis was thoroughly backed with research of power dynamics, there was a gap in the presented research leading from power to race. The acknowledgement of this racialized power dynamic was necessary for this second prediction to have a solid base. The researchers’ final prediction laid out the precedent expectation that Black drivers would be less accommodative than White drivers, especially with White police officers, and continually less accommodative when experiencing more extensive policing (H3). This final hypothesis was the least supported out of the three presented by the authors. Coincidentally, this was also the shortest section of hypothesis explanation. Due to the lack of foundation of this final hypothesis, the statement read as a tinge stereotypical, as if to have its roots in racial bias. This skepticism of intent carried through to the methodology.

The article mentioned that the funding for this project was sourced from the City of Cincinnati and was actually used in tandem to a case settlement by the American Civil Liberties Union. Due to the fact that the sourcing of this research came from the intention to settle an instance of potential police racism, questioning the validity of the methods is necessary. While the original sample size of three-hundred and thirteen was ideal, by accounting for and removing poor quality recordings the sample size was reduced to one hundred and ninety-four. Although the reduction in sample size is monumental, by accounting for potential error the researchers redeemed this aspect of their methodology. By only examining a single month’s worth of footage the authors took the liberty of mentioning further research should examine more than just one month. Accounting for the other potential areas of error, the coding section of this content analysis was strong. By creating one coding book with clear instructions the authors accounted for their necessary reliability. Their use of coding procedures created a consistent method for all coders to follow. This thorough and complete coding section also blocked many potential threats to internal validity. This was clearly seen through the implementation of coding checks and accounting for potential fatigue.  

Specifics from the actual code book were not provided, but by explaining the experiment from the perspective of what the coders were aware of allowed the authors to articulate the clarity of the methods. By explaining the process of coder training the internal consistency present in the content analysis was almost inevitable. Most clearly, the criterion validity was almost perfected by the use of codebook masters. The preemptive empirical tests of reliability were clearly explained and provided a foundation for the audience to follow the researchers’ intent.

Throughout the entire methodology section of this article the authors proved that the content analysis’s validity was technically sound. By removing poor quality audio and visual police recordings they reduced potential error. Not informing the coders on the specific desired, race-related outcomes of this research allowed them to account for testing as a potential threat to the internal validity. Further, Dixon, Schell, Giles, and Drogos accounted for coding fatigue and ensured all coding participants were exposed to and coded for the same number of police interactions.

While the results were alarming, they were not shocking. In light of the recent events in early June 2020, and more specifically the protests and riots surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement, the results were expected for the given climate of today’s environment. This is not to dispel the importance of these results. Repetition of the proof of institutionalized racism is fundamental to the continuation of growth within this revolution. Although facing such disheartening results can be extremely difficult to engage with, it is important to see tangible instances of racism so that there can be no reason for it to be labeled as propaganda without a foundation in truth. By providing factual evidence of these instances of racial communication discrepancy, progress can be made in the sector of police bias training and further aspects of law enforcement.

Whereas it would be hard to describe the given results as novel, new, or groundbreaking it is the repetitive nature of these acts of racial conflict that push the field forward. In fact, it is not in the novelty (or lack thereof) of this content analysis that speaks volumes, but rather the prolonged repetition of this sentiment that amplifies Black voices across the world who speak out against the injustice of racialized policing. It has been proven, by this article and many others, that racism in the police system is highly problematic and deeply systemic. The field continues to be pushed forward by a force much larger than the impact of one, singular article that stands alone. The filed moves forward as the roar of injustice magnifies by decibels.

Whereas the literature review, methods, and results served to prove the reliability and validity of the researchers’ claims, it is the discussion portion that provided the strongest information. By analyzing the actual results from the content analysis alongside a consistent comparison to the foundational hypotheses, a clear meaning could be gathered from otherwise lost sentiments. The discussion of Dixon, Schell, Giles, and Drogos’s results was clear and concise, making the numerical nature of the results tangible to a wider audience (potentially with less experience handling proper analytical terminology). The researchers also made it a point to acknowledge that their sample was nonrepresentative of the Cincinnati Police force as a whole. They even went on to clarify that although the results supported H1, most of H2, and all of H3, the findings did not provide direct evidence of racial profiling on behalf of the Cincinnati Police Department.

This research article occupies a very important space in the communicative field of literature. As previously noted, the results continue to show tangible products of institutionalized racism, especially within the police force. This article is important more now than ever. Dixon, Schell, Giles, and Drogos’s work should be used in the face of criticism to the Black Lives Matter movement to dispel the falsehoods of ignorance that claim racism is not an epidemic affecting America. Sadly, the results are not surprising. In the face of protests across the nation, this information is not groundbreaking. However, it is within the repetition of this sentiment that the real consequences of racism in the police force can be proven to those questioning its existence.

Dixon, Schell, Giles, and Drogos have provided an article that is ethically sound, internally and externally valid, and overall, reliable. The methodology of their content analysis was clear and defined the ways in which the researchers imposed catches in their methods to better track the coding process of their research. The discussion portion of this article was the most impactful, as it was able to take numerical data regarding complex statistical analyses and create a tangible explanation for the sampled recordings. The results were clearly important to the growth of knowledge surrounding the topic, but by stating the findings were not applicable beyond the instances sampled, it became unclear where these important results were actually pertinent. Despite this potential space for confusion, the article blatantly articulated a need for better police training, especially in regard to racial bias training.

Although the information presented by Dixon, Schell, Giles, and Drogos cannot be considered groundbreaking, their findings are extremely important in today’s society. In this nation where many have disregarded the Black Lives Matter movement, some admitting their racism while many others continue to deny it, research that proves institutionalized racism has enveloped law enforcement is crucial to creating change. Protests have broken out across the country, and the police have responded with continued and presidentially backed violence. This article is more important now, than ever before. The findings of this content analysis of the Cincinnati Police Department’s communicative interactions with both Black and White drivers, present the field with harsh facts of racialized influence.

References

Dixon, T. L., Schell, T. L., Giles, H., & Drogos, K. L. (2008). The influence of race in police-civilian interactions: a content analysis of videotaped interactions taken during Cincinnati police traffic stops. Journal of Communication, 58(3), 530-549. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.calpoly.edu/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.00398.x

[sempiternalsandpitturtle]

What is an SEO specialist?

For the uninitiated, search engine optimisation (SEO) can be like black magic – inexplicable, otherworldly and a tad scary.

If these three letters have you reaching for your broomstick in order to beat a hasty retreat, hold up just a minute. There’s someone who can help – an SEO specialist. Never heard of them? These are the white knights behind every company website killing it in Google’s rankings, and they can help you too.

In this article we’ll answer the following questions:

What is an SEO specialist?

How can they improve your website?

What are black hat SEO tactics?

Is it possible to learn SEO quickly?

Wands at the ready. Here. We. Go.

What is an SEO specialist?

An SEO specialist is responsible for analysing a website and suggesting changes to improve how that site ranks in internet searches for relevant terms. You may also see this title shortened to simply ‘an SEO’.

Quick definition of SEO: SEO aims to boost the amount, and the quality, of traffic to a website from organic search results.

We’ll look at some of the key features of a site that an SEO specialist would review in the next section, but first let’s explore the skills and attributes these individuals need to possess:

Keyword research – Despite what you might hear, keywords are still hugely important for SEO strategies. Therefore, an SEO should be able to conduct thorough keyword research, and use the terms ‘naturally’ in your business’ content. Natural usage is the opposite of keyword stuffing – something we’ll cover in our black hat tactics section later on.

Website analysis – Understanding the website elements that contribute to search engine ranking, and staying on top of best practices are essential to an SEO’s role.

Search engine knowledge – Search engines are constantly evolving. SEOs must stay on top of the latest algorithmic updates to boost website performance and avoid ranking penalties.

IT know-how – A solid grounding in CSS, HTML and other programming languages, as well as experience with tools such as MOZ Keyword Explorer and SEMrush is crucial to an efficient SEO workflow.

An analytical mind – The ability to identify problems and implement effective solutions based on hard data is meat and drink to your SEO specialist.

Strong communication skills – If online marketing and SEO are new avenues for your business, chances are your SEO specialist will need to be able to explain its importance to key stakeholders to get buy in at all levels.

Keywords are like Sean Bean - no matter how many times people try to kill them off, they just won’t die. Here’s why they’re still crucial to your #SEO #strategy https://t.co/jbEF82XriL pic.twitter.com/3WEzeWHH0B

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) 11 April 2019

What roles can SEO specialists take?

The above skills position SEO specialists perfectly for a number of roles within a business’ digital marketing team:

Content writing – In addition to crafting perfectly poised prose, SEO is a big part of modern content writing. Google’s Penguin update highlighted the importance of writing for humans instead of search engines, but understanding how to organically deploy keywords is a key SEO consideration for content writers.

Website developers – High numbers of backlinks to your website from other reputable online sources is an important ranking factor in search. They show Google that your site is considered to be a useful resource and help crawlers to find it. Website developers are also crucial for ensuring your pages are correctly tagged, another indicating factor for Google of a high quality site.

Strategists – There’s a strategist behind every successful digital marketing campaign. Understanding, and improving, the SEO performance of your site is a big part of what a strategist brings to the table, so expertise in search engine ranking is crucial to the role.

Search engine marketing (SEM) – In many ways SEO and SEM are opposite sides of the coin. However, keyword understanding as well as the organisational and analytical mindset that SEO specialists have position them well for running and reviewing paid digital ad campaigns.

So what is SEM, and how does it relate to #SEO or #contentmarketing? We’ve written your new go-to guide, covering these questions and more. https://t.co/41RSTevbCD pic.twitter.com/W4qzC56z3H

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) 1 May 2019

How can an SEO specialist improve your website?

Now we get into the real sorcery. Here are some common tactics an SEO specialist will use to improve your site’s search ranking:

Using tags: You need to remember that search engines speak their own language – and your website needs to too. HTML tags are key in helping crawlers identify different elements on a given page or blog post, and will be a high priority for your SEO specialist. Among the most important are:

Title tag – This tells the search engine what each page is about. Your title tag absolutely must contain the keywords that page is targetting. On a search engine results page (SERP) this is where users click on to select a result. Tip – Limit your title to around 60 characters to avoid clipping.

Meta tag – Directly beneath the title tag on a SERP comes your meta. This is a couple of sentences (ideally 130-160 characters) that acts as additional bait for would-be clickers.

Header tags – Divvying your content up with prudent use of H1, H2 and even a cheeky H3 tag not only makes it easier on the eye, but also benefits SEO ranking. These headers are behind those bulleted snippets you see at the top of SERPS (#goals).

Alt tags – Did you know that Google can’t read images? As we’ll see, the right pictures are important ranking factors – but without alt tags, search engines won’t have the foggiest idea what they show.

Adopting keyword best practice:  I could write a whole e-book on keywords (in fact, one of my colleagues did), but here are the most salient, SEO related points:

Find the right ones: Your SEO specialist should know which tools to use in order to find keywords that receive good traffic.

Think about placement: Try and get keywords into your title tags, subheads, opening paragraph, URLs and image alt tags.

Be organic: Unnaturally cramming keywords into the above (or anywhere else for that matter) could see you penalised by Google Penguin. Let the keywords serve the content, rather than distract from it.

Creating cornerstone content: Cornerstone content consists of posts or pages that comprehensively cover one topic. Its primary aim is to help you rank for specific keywords (Google loves takeaway-heavy articles). Your specialist can help you identify areas to target, and use purpose-built tools such as Market Muse to establish competitive word counts.

Including rich media: Rich media includes elements like video, custom images, social media embeds, and polls and quizzes. As well as making your page more visually interesting, these features can help your ranking.Just remember to add the appropriate tags!

Optimising links: Google attaches significant value to links – after all, they help its crawlers get around and establish connections between different pages and sites. Indeed, a study by NinjaOutreach showed how a tiered SEO linking campaign can boost traffic by 40 per cent. An SEO specialist will understand the different types of links, and how to use them effectively for SEO.

Targeting features snippet – AHREFS found that, on SERPS where they appear, 8.6 per cent of clicks go to featured snippets. These SEO jackpots aren’t chosen at random – an SEO can help you tailor content towards capturing them.

Getting local – Your SEO specialist can tweak your SEO to capture the local market, and this is no small fry.

Getting to grips with voice search – By 2020, 30 per cent of internet browsing will be done without a screen, predicts Gartner. Voice search is already playing a role in this shift, so you need an SEO who can update your site for these latest trends.

Voice search is here and it's changing the way that we search, so what can digital marketers do to adapt? https://t.co/AFoG2nsGCF pic.twitter.com/Ivdx7R5Ell

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) 18 January 2019

What are blackhat SEO tactics?

If your SEO specialist suggests any of the following blackhat tactics, it’s time to book them a one-way ticket to Azkaban. Many of the following could see your site penalised by search engine rankings:

Keyword stuffing  – Until relatively recently, you could get away with unnaturally high frequencies of keyword use. However, now Google values quality of content over quantity of keywords. An example of keyword stuffing could be:

Looking for nose warmers in Alice Springs? We sell nose warmers in Alice Springs, so get in touch with one of our experts in Alice Springs to buy a nose warmer today.

Duplicating content – If you copy and paste content from another site, or within your own, you’re likely to fall foul of Google Panda. This algorithmic update seeks to weed out poor quality or duplicated content.

Content automation – Compelling content is important in many aspects of digital marketing. However, if you’re tempted to get machines to do it for you – think again. Firstly, the stuff they produce will lack value, formatting and images. Secondly, Auntie Google doesn’t like automated content, and will penalise your site.

Cloaking – This refers to showing one page to searchers, and another to search engines. This allows spam websites to rank for content that isn’t relevant to their content and mask the garbage they’re putting out.

Link farms – The number of links to your site is a key ranking factor. For this reason, some bright sparks set up so-called link farms – websites that exist solely to supply links to sites that someone wants to rank highly. Unfortunately, link farms are easily identifiable for search engines, and should be avoided.

Personal blog networks – Like link farms, personal blog networks aim to make it look like a website has lots of links. These are authoritative sites that form a network where each links to the target site, but not to each other.

Paid links – Building links with authority sites is an important SEO tactic, but you need to play by the rules. Buying links, or exchanging them for goods, isn’t allowed under Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, and both the buyer and seller can be penalised if caught.

Website redirects – Similar to cloaking, this involves sending crawlers to one page, and users to another. Only use redirects for their intended purposes – for example, when you’ve changed domain name and want users to find your new site.

Spamming blog comment sections – In the past, Google and other search engines would count links from blog comments among their ranking factors. While this is no longer the case, you’ll still find plenty of people advertising their blog commenting services to boost your SEO performance. Ignore them.

The days of quantity over quality in terms of #socialmedia posting are over. Today, your content needs to hit the mark every time. Here’s why. https://t.co/qwxWMfziox pic.twitter.com/2J1lHjIPcw

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) 25 February 2019

How long does SEO take to work?

Precisely 49 minutes.

Okay, sadly that’s a lie – you can’t put a timeframe on how long it will take your SEO tree to start bearing tasty click-through fruit. This is because the results of your tactics depend not only on the skills of your SEO specialist, but also what your competition is doing.

It also matters what industry you’re in. For example, business selling laptops in Sydney are going to be up against tougher opposition than those flogging Wallabies rugby shirts in Auckland. More people targeting the same SERPS and keywords can mean it takes longer for you to see tangible results from your SEO campaign.

Can I learn SEO fast?

Given that 71.3 per cent of searches result in a page one organic (unpaid) click, according to Moz, SEO is something that businesses really can’t afford to ignore.

If you’re interested in learning SEO for yourself, there are a number of great resources out there to start improving your knowledge. These include

Moz.

Search Engine Journal.

Search Engine Land.

Marketing Land.

ClickZ.

Search Engine Watch.

The good news is that a lot of the basics of aren’t hard to understand, and you can start practicing immediately by implementing some best practices on your own site.

Learning through doing is definitely the trick when it comes to SEO.

71.3 per cent of Google searches result in a page one organic (unpaid) click.

However, much like FIFA, you can never complete SEO. And this is where business owners tend to fall down when trying to tackling this aspect of digital marketing alone,on a long term basis. It’s one thing to get your site optimised, but you then need to continually review and tweak in accordance with changes to what the search engines want to see.

Modern digital marketing agencies have a lot to offer. Here’s our comprehensive guide to their services, and how they can help you. https://t.co/jz6AXdDvOl pic.twitter.com/gsOOsPR6aX

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) 18 April 2019

Why outsource SEO to an agency?

For these reasons, many businesses outsource their SEO concerns to agencies. Here are some of the benefits they bring to the table:

Expertise – From strategists to writers, digital agency personnel are well versed in the latest updates to search engine protocol. In addition to actioning change to your site themselves, they can also help you expand your own understanding of all things SEO.

Access to tools – As well as an in-depth understanding of SEO, agency staff will have access to and experience using the tools needed to review and improve your site’s performance.

Accountability – To prove their tactics are working, any agency worth its salt will provide a plethora of reports and walk you through the results. This means that even if you don’t fully grasp every detail of what they’re doing, you get full visibility over whether it’s achieving the desired results.

Time-saving – Once you’ve found an agency you like working with, they can get on with SEO work in the background while you focus on the business itself.

from http://bit.ly/2LDcGhl

[easyecom]

 Benefits of  Using Cloud Based  Inventory Management System

One of the significant sources of aggravation for distributors is undoubtedly inventory management, but it doesn't have to be. Stock count errors may reduce your ROI on products, but cloud-based real-time tracking and reporting can keep siloed data from impairing your business operations. You may gain real-time insight into your inventory by investing in a cutting-edge SaaS distribution system, and it will also provide consistent visibility across your whole supply chain.

The newest solutions can also be hosted in the cloud thanks to tools that offer added features like offshore installation and minimal downtime, are affordable and accelerate system configuration and integration.

H3: What exactly is a Cloud-based Inventory Management System?

A cloud-based (or SaaS-based) inventory management solution is an online tool that enables you to monitor and manage all of your company's inventory-related activities. When compared to the traditional on-premise inventory management system, it has many benefits.

A traditional inventory management system entails numerous manual, error-prone procedures. You may eliminate all those errors by using an inventory management system located in the cloud. It makes it simple for you to keep track of all your incoming and outgoing goods, boosting the efficiency of your business as a whole.

Here are the benefits of using a flexible, robust cloud-based platform to manage your inventory:

Stock Tracking and Analysis

The biggest difficulty in inventory management is accuracy. Your time and resources are depleted when you commit man hours to perform cycle counting. Overstocking or understocking, which reduces your margins, is what really damages your budget.

This problem is solved by the cloud platform, which makes it possible to track inventories at all stages without the restrictions of conventional implementations. You may open a menu at any time and delve into the pallet data thanks to tracking functionality based on lot and serial numbers, as well as more detailed breakdowns into sections like sub-categories. You can analyse and decide on the status of your inventory at any time by comparing location information with other variables, such as expiration dates.

Cloud-based supply chain management

As inventory is vital ensuring profitable product distribution is what truly allows you to stay in business. Finding the ideal moment to buy fresh goods is essential to maintaining a positive inventory turnover rate. However, unless you have a contemporary cloud ERP and inventory tracking system with order and requisition automation, manually tracking inventory needs additional labour.

Supply chain management is streamlined by using cloud software to automate your procurement procedures, saving you valuable time on administrative work. You may create fully unique reporting that uses past vendor information to help you plan out your distribution management procedures based on real-world supply and demand with flexibility in how you design your data fields, strong analytics, and predictive forecasting.

Remote and Real-Time Management of Warehouses

Cloud ERP eliminates the physical limitations of operating many warehouses in the past by utilising real-time communication. By switching to cloud-based software, you get remote access that gives you visibility into any inventory location.

Cloud solutions also lift the restrictions imposed by conventional IT infrastructures that demand onsite hardware. Multi-warehouse capabilities may be scaled to meet your needs with changes for actual inventory volume, distribution centre location(s), mobile device deployment, and more due to nearly unlimited digital resources given via the cloud.

Your company's overall performance may be significantly impacted by how you manage your inventory. A cloud-hosted inventory tracking system is efficient, accurate, scalable, and practical management techniques support corporate growth. An orthodox system, on the other hand, could eliminate you from the global competition due to its slow, error-prone, and ineffective processes. Additionally, you are able to concentrate on other crucial aspects like product development, sales, and customer services with a cloud-hosted management solution, which accelerates your company's total growth.

[easyecom]

Benefits of Using Cloud Based Inventory Management System

One of the significant sources of aggravation for distributors is undoubtedly inventory management, but it doesn't have to be. Stock count errors may reduce your ROI on products, but cloud-based real-time tracking and reporting can keep siloed data from impairing your business operations. You may gain real-time insight into your inventory by investing in a cutting-edge SaaS distribution system, and it will also provide consistent visibility across your whole supply chain.

The newest solutions can also be hosted in the cloud thanks to tools that offer added features like offshore installation and minimal downtime, are affordable and accelerate system configuration and integration.

H3: What exactly is a Cloud-based Inventory Management System?

A cloud-based (or SaaS-based) inventory management solution is an online tool that enables you to monitor and manage all of your company's inventory-related activities. When compared to the traditional on-premise inventory management system, it has many benefits.

A traditional inventory management system entails numerous manual, error-prone procedures. You may eliminate all those errors by using an inventory management system located in the cloud. It makes it simple for you to keep track of all your incoming and outgoing goods, boosting the efficiency of your business as a whole.

Here are the benefits of using a flexible, robust cloud-based platform to manage your inventory:

Stock Tracking and Analysis

The biggest difficulty in inventory management is accuracy. Your time and resources are depleted when you commit man hours to perform cycle counting. Overstocking or understocking, which reduces your margins, is what really damages your budget.

This problem is solved by the cloud platform, which makes it possible to track inventories at all stages without the restrictions of conventional implementations. You may open a menu at any time and delve into the pallet data thanks to tracking functionality based on lot and serial numbers, as well as more detailed breakdowns into sections like sub-categories. You can analyse and decide on the status of your inventory at any time by comparing location information with other variables, such as expiration dates.

Cloud-based supply chain management

As inventory is vital ensuring profitable product distribution is what truly allows you to stay in business. Finding the ideal moment to buy fresh goods is essential to maintaining a positive inventory turnover rate. However, unless you have a contemporary cloud ERP and inventory tracking system with order and requisition automation, manually tracking inventory needs additional labour.

Supply chain management is streamlined by using cloud software to automate your procurement procedures, saving you valuable time on administrative work. You may create fully unique reporting that uses past vendor information to help you plan out your distribution management procedures based on real-world supply and demand with flexibility in how you design your data fields, strong analytics, and predictive forecasting.

Remote and Real-Time Management of Warehouses

Cloud ERP eliminates the physical limitations of operating many warehouses in the past by utilising real-time communication. By switching to cloud-based software, you get remote access that gives you visibility into any inventory location.

Cloud solutions also lift the restrictions imposed by conventional IT infrastructures that demand onsite hardware. Multi-warehouse capabilities may be scaled to meet your needs with changes for actual inventory volume, distribution centre location(s), mobile device deployment, and more due to nearly unlimited digital resources given via the cloud.

Your company's overall performance may be significantly impacted by how you manage your inventory. A cloud-hosted inventory tracking system is efficient, accurate, scalable, and practical management techniques support corporate growth. An orthodox system, on the other hand, could eliminate you from the global competition due to its slow, error-prone, and ineffective processes. Additionally, you are able to concentrate on other crucial aspects like product development, sales, and customer services with a cloud-hosted management solution, which accelerates your company's total growth.