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The activity in the social networks of many famous brands has long ago looked beyond the promotion of commercial offers. Now this is more than business – it’s a way of life, accessible and distributed by supporters of certain values, united by a trademark. To be involved in it is fashionable and honorable.

Such approach provides a special role for the content strategy. Its implementation in social networks by branded companies is often their main marketing activity.

What to base SMM-promotion in 2018?

Taking into account the tendencies to increase the popularity of social networks and the forecast of their development in the future, there are 7 basic principles for the formation of a successful brand strategy for SMM promotion this year.

Principle 1. Definition of objectives

To know what and how to do, we must first understand and indicate what we want. Define the purpose of creating a page in social networks and periodically analyze its relevance, correct if it is indicated by analytical information.

The best way to formulate goals is using the SMART method. In this case, they will be measurable, real, concrete, relevant and will have a clear deadlines.

Principle 2. One style

The ideal option is to create an Identity Guidelines of brand. So you will achieve visual identification of your product and create a recognizable identity among users, regardless of which social network or messenger they use.

Principle 3. Competition focus

When content is creating, concentrate on the competitive advantages of your brand in relation to other participants in the niche. So you give a clear message to the audience about what the brand represents and what benefits it gives to the potential consumer.

Principle 4. Scrupulous planning

Instance of publications in social networks should be clearly planned and not depend on anyone’s desire or well-being. In order to keep the audience it is necessary to adhere to the frequency of submission of the material, not to allow long pauses between publications. To do this, it is necessary to compile a generalized content plan for six months, more detailed – for a month and very detailed for a week.

Principle 5. Professional Content

Every minute on facebook and Instagram appears about one thousand new photos and about 300 thousand updated statuses. Think about how much information! Therefore, it is so important to do everything to make the content about your brand attract the attention of users. And to achieve this, it is possible using photographs and pictures of exceptionally good quality with a thoughtful plot. They will definitely gratify the eyes and make the audience to hold their attention to the content.

Principle 6. Diversity

Saturate your posts not just with photos or videos. Use the greatest possible variety of information delivery, for example: animation, photo, video, live, backstage, Stories. Write down the different direction of the videos – those that can teach, inspire, help in something to understand.

Principle 7. Involvement

For the success of the content strategy, it is important to get the audience involved, that feels involved in the development of the brand and can even influence it. To do this, use techniques such as: polls, competitions, thematic discussions, testing and other means of communication. This will give you the opportunity to identify the most active and devoted admirers, mark them with any encouragement and cause the rest of the audience to be in their place.

We hope this information will be useful to you and your content strategy will bring great success in SMM-promotion of your product. And if this does not happen, the Outsourcing Team is always ready to provide professional help and support in promoting your business.

All sources of potential customers, including users of social networks, are possible for business. Moreover, the number of social networks users constantly increasing. And with the advent of new platforms for communication, another audience is formed, as well as ways of submitting information. Today we will talk about one of the latest trends in the modern world of virtual communication – Instagram.

Statistics show that already 17% of adults use this social network constantly. Of these, more than 50% are daily, and a third of users visit their pages several times a day. Obviously, these figures are enough to launch your product or brand in Instagram, if you have not done it yet.

First steps

Begin the advancement with a well thought out plan. But first of all, it is necessary to perform basic actions, namely:

• Create a page in social networks
• Call it in accordance with the product being promoted
• Place a logo for recognition
• It is brief and understandable to describe the type of company’s activity or to point out the characteristics of the product / service being sold
• Add contact information, including a link to the site
• Configure page settings in the “Privacy” tab

Realizing these actions, do not forget about the visual design of the page, which plays an important role for the quality of promotion.

Further actions

Now it’s time for active communication with the audience. It will be best if you compile a monthly and weekly plan indicating the dates and topics of future publications. And in order for all the activities aimed at promoting the brand in Instagram were successful, we recommend that you adhere to the following recommendations:

• Photos used in posts and page profile design should be of good quality.
• Be sure to mark each publication with three or four hashtags #, suitable for the topic.
• Share with the subscribers the curious moments that occur in your company. For example, one of the employees is clunky and today accidentally poured coffee on the keyboard, hurrying to write an interesting post. Take a picture and share it with the users, they will be interested.
• Expand the audience by subscribing to the pages of those who may potentially be interested in your product. Upvote their posts, comment and they will most likely answer you the same.
• Do video reviews, they are extremely attracting users.
• Use specific filters to process photos. This will complement your style and attract the attention of your supporters.
• Come up with various contests, it’s always a great opportunity to talk about your brand and fill the audience.
• Develop a system of discounts. Offer bonuses for certain actions of your users, for example: upvote a post or share it, write a comment.
• Serve your product or service at its best. For example, it is better to present clothes not on dummies and hangers, but on models. And when advertising coffee machines, show on the photo what high foam the machine can do.
• Periodically, open the curtain of your company’s internal work. Subscribers will be interested to see a short photo report from the meeting or celebration of the employee’s birthday. Illustration of a new product that has just received will also be effective. Such publications will inspire trust among your admirers and will definitely attract attention.

During the operating the page in Instagram, do not forget to monitor the behavior of your audience. To do this, there are services such as Curalate and Blitzmetrics. They automatically analyze all the actions of subscribers: likes, comments, transitions to the site and the like.

It is important to remember that the profile of your company in Instagram is one of the tools of the marketing strategy and requires an attentive and professional approach.

If you have a free access to a certain number of site management systems, the opportunity to save money on them is a great temptation for project managers. We offer to understand for what purposes free version of CMS is enough, but in which cases it is necessary to purchase a full package of services.

The goal raises facilities

All projects are different, therefore it is impossible to say unambiguously which system, paid or free of charge, during their implementation should be used. But, nevertheless, it is possible to single out categories that are quite realizable on the basis of free tools. For example, it can be promo sites, online media outlets relating to news, or blogs and even small online marketplaces.

As for more larger-scale tasks, free CMS may not be enough to implement them. Especially if it is a question of own support service or a large number of pages with a mass flow of visitors.

Also, not having confident programming skills, you may have to look for and pay for the services of a specialist who will configure modules and plug-ins to enhance the functionality of the free of charge system. Or spend money on existing add-ins.

During the corporate projects implementing there is a risk of lack of an appropriate security level for their operation. It is caused by the fact that the developer of the management system does not provide technical support in the free package of services.

As you can see, the limitations of the free of charge CMS is evident. It is indicative that nevertheless most of the companies choose for themselves a more promising way of payment for expanding their capabilities.

Advantages of paid CMS

First of all it should be noted that a paid “engine” is an indispensable condition for well- selling online stores and corporate sites that plan long-term existence and development. In this case you acquire the product of one particular company the developers of which have prepared it as a single array with compatible elements, the functionality of which, in addition, can be expanded and supplemented as part of an individual approach to the client.

The use of one of these CMS is safe for the owner of the Internet resource, since security is a top-priority for the development of paid software products. Often they are presented with a closed source code for the sake of leveling the probability of hacking.

Another advantage is the technical support provided by the developer firm. Without extra costs and attracting additional staff to your team, its specialists will professionally solve any problem of the system in the shortest possible time.

Outsourcing as a method of achieving results

So, paid resources are more suitable for serious commercial projects and generally enjoy greater popularity. Therefore, if your plans are far-reaching, do not waste time working with free of charge management systems, since in the future you will most likely use them later.

It remains only to decide which resource to use, to which CMS entrust your business. At this stage one of the successful solutions may be to attract an outsourcing company. Such one will professionally select the best option for the implementation of your project, saving your time and nerves, and also protecting against unnecessary financial losses.

Staff of the Outsourcing Team company continues to arm you with useful information and is ready at any time to provide effective support.

Project is the achievement of goal by solving tasks and organization of events. Goal can be various: product creation, service provision, achievement of result.

Project is limited by the resources and time. He is demands on management during the all life cycle.

Management is a resource balancing to achievement of stated goal by the most profitable way. Planning bases on the idea, that project passes consistent stages. Different approaches allocate from 3 to 5 phases of management. Project Management Body of Knowledge notice, that quantity of stages individually and determined by the command. Consider the organization of the project by segregation it into 5 phases.

1. Initiation phase.

Initiation is the moment of incipience of project.

Phase consist of 2 parts:

1. Decision to launch.

2. Preparation to launch.

Technical and economic research are held, which result will show, what to expect during the launch. The participants make decision on the opportunity of realization of tasks with help resources of the company.

On the stage of initiation occurs:

• Definition of goals and objectives
• Appointment of a manager
• Drafting of statute
• Designation of participants and stakeholders. Interested participants are sponsors, customers, managers.
• Description of project
• Providing information of interested parties
• Determination of expected result
• Listed action concretize information about the project.

2. Planning phase.

Development of overall plan of management of a project.

Occurs:

• Assessment of the time spent on operations
• Assessment of financial costs to work
• Choice of ways to communicate of stakeholders
• Budget planning
• Determination of sequence of works
• Pondering of goals and objectives
• Preparation of overall plan

Stage includes the creature of Wоrk Breakdown Structure. This is breakdown of the project into parts according to a specific feature (function, product, life cycle stage). The creation of the Gantt chart. This is a calendar plan in the form of a bar chart, which use to plotting schedule of works.

There is planning of risk management, which includes:

-identification and analysis of risks

-approaches to risk reduction

-planning of response to a risk.

3. Execution phase

Project implementation according to the plan.

Stage includes:

• Organization of employee interaction
• Ensuring an adequate level of quality of work
• Development of team
• Information flow between project participants

4. Monitoring and management phase

This stage occurs in parallel with the execution phase. The progress of the project is measured:

1. The compliance of the executes work with the plan for resources and risks is checked.

2. Determination of the degree of deviation of time, material and human resources.

Monitoring allows to react quickly to a deviation from plan or accentuate compliance with the plan. The main objective is correction of deviations from the plan during the project implementation.

5. Closing phase

The last stage of the life cycle of the project.

Includes the following tasks:

• product delivery to the customer
• release of resources
• team reward
• termination of work with contractors
• preparation of the implementation report
• analysis of problems and errors
• preparation of conclusions
• The project brought results and can be completed.

Planning and structuring of the project doesn’t allow to get confused in a lot of tasks. During the implementing of the plan it’s necessary to proceed to the next stage only after the completion of the previous one.

Thinking and consistent execution of tasks is the key to a successful project.

Hello, my name is Leonid and i’m a SEO specialist. For growth number of site visitors it’s necessary to advance him in search results. This is my objective. I’m optimize a site and individual pages so, that Internet users visit him more often.

I am the expert, that uses a specific professional definitions. Person, that don’t interacts with promotion on the Internet in everyday life, is hard to understand the language of SEO specialist.

Therefore, I want to explain some SEO definitions.

Their knowledge is simplifies a communication of сustomer with performer.

Keywords – words or collocations, that SEO specialist selects to advance site or specific page.

Semantic core – group of the words and collocations in different word-forms. This is base of the target search queries.

Semantic core is selected to website promotion. A task of SEO specialist to select him correctly and in the future to distribute keywords and phrases on landing pages. On the base of the semantic core SEO Specialist composes a technical task for copywriter.

Technical task – document, where SEO expert sets a specific task to performers: programmer, administrator or copywriter. In task designated a demands to a work and expected result. Clear and literate technical task gives to performer an understanding of tasks, that are worth before him. In this way, effective of advance increases.

Traffic – number of site visitors. Measured over a certain period of time. Number of visitors per twenty-four hours – every day traffic, per month – audience reach.

Query – phrase, which user enter to a search system during the search of information, product or service.

Lead – visitor of site, which has provided his contact information. For example, filled out an online form on the site or called. In this way, this visitor transformed to potential client.

Conversion:

1. Ratio of number of visitors of the resource to the number of visitors, which fulfilled the desired action. The target action can be various: purchase of goods or services, order of call, view of concrete page, fill out of questionnaire, transition through an external link.

2. Ratio of number of visitors, which saw an advertising, to the visitors, which used the proposed product. The conversion is measured over a certain period of time.

Remarketing, retargeting – way of promotion, when advertising is demonstrated to visitor, which already was on the site, but didn’t committed the target action (did not buy the goods, did not order the service). Retargeting is effective, because advertising is demonstrated to the user, which initially was interested on purchase.

For example, person looked pages with shirts on the online store, but left site without purchase.

Advertising with shirts and related products is demonstrated him until he will make purchase.

Knowledge of this designations will help to understand mechanism and principles of work of the SEO specialist. You will be easier to discuss delivered tasks and expected result of work.

During the search of SEO expert you will meet with freelancers and managers.

Freelancer works independently. A professional freelancer regularly reads articles and blogs. During the communication with you he will be easily operate SEO definitions.

Manager represents the specific company. His task not only a site optimization, but also explanation of mechanisms of his work. Not scary, if in speech of SEO specialist you hear unknown words. Necessarily ask him again. From agreement of working nuances depends quality of work fulfillment.

Article informs about effective management of groups and pages in a social networks. You will learn to create artwork, to choose a format of images to Instagram and Facebook. You will learn about right communication with subscribers and about fight with negative comments.

All information in the article it is possible and necessary to apply in a practice.

Number and time of publications

Unified scheme, thanks to which page or group in a social networks become popular, does not exist. This is individually and depends on specific company and product, that it offers. Try, analyse and improve your actions.

How much to post?

During the preparation of information observe next 3 regulations.

• Quality and usefulness of publications. Mems, which have already published, will not give benefits to your community in the social networks.
• Regularity. The time interval should always be adhered to. Regardless of it is one day or target week.
• Optimal quantity of publications. Do not clog up a news feed of the followers by many posts. Let the publications go less often but will be more quality.

If you promoting small business, then in the Instagram post 5 times per week, in the Facebook — 3 times.

Publication time

Carefully study the statistics of a page or group in social networks. Set the peak activity time of the target audience. Publish posts at this time. The analysis of involvement and outreach will provide information about what format of content your audience likes.

For young groups such recommendations:

Instagram — 5 publications. Best time: 6-11 am, 6-11 pm

Facebook — 3 publications. Best time: 10-15, 7-10 pm

Instagram:

• attach geolocation
• put hashtags
• add emoto
• explain to subscribers why you invite them
• call for action
• write in a colloquial style
• be concise, no more than three sentences
• add photos of subscribers with reviews

Facebook:

• write in one style
• add to publications images
• do not write too much
• explain to subscribers why you invite them
• call to action
• write from the first person

Hashtag is an important toll of promotion. Their search should be approached seriously. This will help the Websta service.

Important!Do not choose popular hashtags. They will quickly drop publication down. Also do not fit too sophisticated – they are inconvenient search for information. Set hashtags with average popularity.

Formalization of publication

Illustrate the textual information with images. A source can be various: make new photo to the smartphone or camera, choose the illustration on archive or download from the photo stock.

Publication should be readable. In this will help:

• correct heading
• alternating short paragraphs with long
• concise and understandable suggestions

Strong headline

Good way to make a headline, which will attract the user is Six Thinking Heads.

Typography

Important, that text will be orderly. Such a message is perceived easy. The reader will not stumble on unnecessary punctuation.

Achieve accuracy will help:

• space after punctuation
• headings and subtitles
• bulleted lists
• quotes

Preparing the image

Use a specific editor for images that you publish. In it select 2-3 filter and apply them to all publications.

Optimal photo size

Facebook:

• aspect ratio: 3:2
• can be a square image
• do not use a vertical photo

Suitable width – 1200 pixels

Instagram:

• better look square image
• acceptable horizontal photo
• do not use a vertical image

Suitable width – 1000 pixels

Before posting

Check text for errors. Re-read the written before sends a message.

How to communicate

After publication begins a new stage of work. Now important to answer to comments of audience.

• React to every comment. Even if the message does not require a detailed response. Sometimes you can reply with a smile or like it.
• For messages, in which subscribers ask a question, answer as much as possible in detail and deployed.
• Respond quickly. Let the audience know, that you are actively involved in communicated with it.
• In Facebook communicate without unnecessary officialdom, in Instagram — more simply, but without familiarity.

How to respond to negative comments:

• communicate simply and without unnecessary emotions
• answer only to the author of negative comment
• be discreet and polite, do not go on insults
• back up your answer with facts, conclusions and arguments.

Important!Enter into a dialogue only if you are calm and emotions do not boil inside you.

Notes for work with groups and pages in social networks:

1. Analyze statistics

2. Put the text in order

3. Illustrate information

4. Call to action

5. Give feedback

6. Work with the negative

Adhere to this recommendations and very soon the group or page in social network will give the first results.

Qualitative and convenient interface, interesting content – these are the basic components of the success of any web resource. The availability of a wide range of tools for both web development and design, allows users to present their products in a completely different way today. But from the wide variety of approaches in web design, it is still possible to highlight the most popular and attractive ones in this year. Let’s consider some of them.

Futurism returns

Using in the design of futuristic techniques gives the effect of dynamics and movement. Being very popular at the beginning of the 20th century, this style glorified the era of cars and personified technical progress. In the modern world, futuristic design projects fantastic vision of the future, where robots and computers flooded the entire space of human civilization.

Minimalism

The simpler the better. Design strives to easy and understandable forms. Such web resource is comfortable to use. It does not shine with the play of colors or the saturation of content. The predominant color is white and the space free from visual elements prevails. This solution is great when you need to create a universal and multifunctional web design.

Depth and volume

Implies the addition to a standard flat design by volume elements. The bulk effect is achieved due to shadows. Thus, a simple design in the style of minimalism remains the same convenient, but with nice visual attributes and a sense of the depth of the picture.

Adaptability

In view of rapid growth in the use of mobile phones and tablets, and, correspondingly, the decrease in the number of computer admirers, a priori adaptability in web design should be provided. In particular, this applies to such an important attribute of any company as its logo. It is necessary to develop several visual solutions for the logo, so that it looks like a great desktop, as well as a small screen smartphone.

Originality

Non-standard and non-ordinary stories always attract our gaze. And what could be more beneficial for brand promotion, how not is its clear identification in the eyes of users. Use the drains of icons and art to create your own corporate identity.

Dynamics

Draw attention to your resource with the help of moving elements in the design. It’s about GIF, mobile banners and other animations. So you can focus the audience’s attention on certain interface details.
Also it’s worth noting that a parallax effect is gaining popularity in web design. Sites developed using this special technique look really impressive and modern.

Microinteractions

To attract user attention and prolong the time spent on a web resource, it is important to ensure the convenience and functionality of your design. Using the technique of micro-action, you will create a truly human-oriented design. Visitors will definitely appreciate this and will not remain indifferent to the product being promoted.

Bright gradients

Once popular, gradients of bright colors have not been used for a long time with the scale as before. But the latest trends in the world of web design are making their own adjustments. Now colorful saturated colors, scattered through the elements of the interface, are also trends in modern digital design.

So, 2018 promises to be a year of bright colors, dynamics and unusual illustrations in web design. Designers will be able to show more freedom, using the widest arsenal of existing techniques.

Do you want to develop a colorful and effective design for your web product? Please contact us and make sure that we are professionals in our business.

There are some factors that affect the success of the project. They require a great attention to details, careful planning and effective communication. Many of these factors will be discussed in this article.

1. A good team

A correctly selected team will make any plan or strategy work stably. All team members should have a common goal and strive for a common success. It is equally important to work regularly on cohesion, moral climate and communication in projects.

2. Smart planning

The work of the whole team should be carefully planned from the very beginning of the project implementation. Participants should know clearly in which direction it will move. Planning allows the team to meet deadlines and stay organized, as well as help to not lose interest in the course of the project. Use in work various tools on which it is possible to store the information, and which provide free access to it for the whole team. Tools such as the Copper Project not only allow you to effectively manage the To-Dos and Project projects, but also regulate the availability of resources.

3. Communication

Providing an open communication within the team is essential. During working on a project, it is important to remain the team well-informed. If the problem occurs at one stage of the project, the following may be negatively affected also. Communication is the best way to easily solve or prevent many problems and is a very important component to achieve a success. The сompany should never promise anything that they can not accomplish. Always be honest about what your company can or can’t do and when it can be done.

4. Risk management

Project managers sometimes face situations where things go wrong. During the planning process, it is extremely important to create a risk journal with a plan of actions for their elimination, which the project may face. Make sure that all participants are aware of the existence of a risk journal and where it can be found. If something will happen, the problem can be quickly resolved.

5. Correct finish of the project

If the project is not fully completed, it can continue to consume additional resources. Confirmation of the implementation, testing and release of the project must be agreed and signed by both – performer and customer.

The task of the project manager is to ensure uninterrupted work on the project, but the presence of an excellent manager does not guarantee a successful result of the project. A team, paying a proper attention to the key factors will help to bring the project to real success.

What is an effective strategy in content marketing read in our blog

Content marketing involves the development and distribution of quality content, the main purpose of which is to get a good result from the marketing strategy. This type of activity is aimed at the realization of many tasks: brand promotion, increasing the customer loyalty and traffic to the website, and much more.

Many people are involved in the development of the content marketing strategy – marketers, analysts, SMM and content managers, designers, project managers. The development process consists of the several stages:

• analysis of the target audience and the market. At this stage, the information about the target audience is collected, as well as the places where the materials should be posted;
• development of a content plan. The types of content, topics, place, time of placement are determined;
• selection of performers. A better and faster result can be achieved by selecting authors who are well informed with the required topics. The articles are written faster, the communication edge with a client disappears due to clear understanding of the topic;
• selection of the method and place for publication of materials (paid or free, inside the site or on external sources);
• development of activity around materials;
• collection and evaluation of results.

There are many useful tools that are working with content and speed up and facilitate the work of specialists. One of the most important tools is the software which works with monitoring of activity. You will be able to adjust your reputation and track the mentions of you on the network. The second tool – operators and formulas, with which you can find profitable websites for the company. The tools of web analytics are important also. Do not neglect Yandex.Metrics and Google Analytics. Using these services allows you to customize UTM-tags, evaluate the effectiveness of advertising, etc. Soft for social networks helps to track the activity of the target audience and simplifies the work with accounts. Soft for email marketing returns the target audience.

The content marketing strategy is formed on the basis of a brief, which indicates the purpose of the company, the number and frequency of content creation. Quite often, customers come to conduct an effective promotion, to work with a reputation or raise brand awareness. Depending on the chosen strategy, content can be planned for a certain period – a year, a month, a week. All materials can be divided into two groups – viral (placed in groups, cause effect) and those that are adapted to search queries (hosted on a blog or on third-party resources, bring traffic).

To assess the content strategy correctly, different metrics are used. The number of subscriptions, activity of the audience, traffic, orders, sales, calls, registration by forms, etc. are monitored.

The selection of material is a very important stage, in the process of which it is necessary to pay attention to several factors.
Before you deal with content marketing, you need to set up an analyst, which will accurately show data on the effectiveness of an article. Thus, you can correctly distribute the team’s power and achieve success.

The amount of content is calculated taking into account the attendance of the resource. The larger the website, the more comments there should be, and vice versa. The optimal number is 1 comment per 1000 visitors.

“Evergreen” content – materials that remain relevant for a long time. They consistently generate traffic for several years.

The use of viral materials, though not often leads to sales, but excites interest, stimulates reports and raises the loyalty of the public.

Additional “upgrade” the page by using natural links and implementing key queries. To get more traffic, texts for large sites are better to optimize for search queries.

Sometimes you can notice the reduction of the number of visitors or lack of their growth. In this case, you need to change the strategy and work on creating a new one. Every week it is important to analyze the results of your work, as well as to look for the ways to increase the effectiveness of content marketing, in addition do not forget the other channels of receiving users: seo-promotion, advertising and others.

Also here you can learn about seo-trends in 2018.

Technologies are developing rapidly. Every year, we are pleased with the creation of the new methods of web development, relevant applications, as well as methods for promotion of the websites. In this article, we’ll talk about SEO-trends in 2018.

1. Link building

In 2018, link building will become even more popular. In this case, there is no need to earn links that do not increase the value of the company and do not increase its reliability in the target niche. Also, it is not necessary to use links received from websites with high ratings. What is really important – its relation to the industry in which the company operates. The next year, a successful SEO strategy will focus on getting links and developing useful contacts that will be beneficial in the long term.

2. Mobile-first index

There is a high probability that Google in 2018 will launch a mobile-first index, many companies will notice a positive impact on their success of mobile devices. Also, the demand for Google AMP is expected to increase, the technology speeds up page loading 4 times faster, which leads to an increase of the users stay on the website by 35%.

3. Virtual assistants and voice search

The technology of voice search greatly influenced the way we process information and communicate. Virtual assistants are gaining increasing popularity and, as a consequence, the way we search for information is gradually changing. Currently, according to Google statistics, 1 out of 5 search queries is performed using voice search. These processes change the search market, and in 2018 only the number of requests made in this way is expected to increase. Speaking of the SEO strategy, you need to focus on long-tail queries and use a natural form of speech, as communication with voice assistants occurs in the form of a dialogue. As far as the accuracy of speech recognition increases, more people will use voice search. A great influence on the integration of this function is provided by the ability to manage smart houses. Dialogue search offers new opportunities for content marketing and SEO, providing interaction with the user.

4. User experience

To improve the performance of the website, first, you need to assess its download speed, navigation structure and readability. Studying the patterns of behavior, you can learn a lot of useful information, if the time of users staying on the website is about 30 seconds or less, this may be indicative of the poor-quality content of the site or UX. More and more people are viewing different content from a mobile phone, so it’s important to pay special attention to this component as well.

5. Machine learning and artificial intelligence

These two areas have a direct impact on the ranking of search results, helping to find the information in the context of queries and providing a more personalized search.

6. Expanded and quick answers

For zero position in the search results is a big competition, which is caused by the popularity of quick answers. According to Stone Temple Consulting, Google returns ready-made responses for 30% of requests. Graphs, tables, lists – extended answers, which are quite common. In addition, it is useful to create content that has the form of questions, this makes it easy for Google to retrieve data. At voice search, the optimization of content for ready-made answers is gaining more and more relevance. Applying these two methods simultaneously increases the company’s chance of getting into the top SERP. A well-considered strategy significantly increases the conversion rates and authority of the company.

7. Popularity of visual search

More and more users prefer materials in a visual form. Hence there is a need for visual search. Bing, Google, Pinterest are already engaged in the development of search engines of this kind. Visual materials attract more and more, and the use of innovations forms a competitive market.

To summarize, we can say that traditional techniques will continue to show high efficiency, but the methods mentioned above can bring SEO to a new level. Focusing on new trends, you can get better results and, combining them with the old, create an effective strategy for the next year.

Also here you can read about the most popular eCommerce – platform Magento

Magento is the world’s largest eCommerce platform with open source code. The flexibility of code is one of the biggest advantages, due to which a lot of traders turn to this platform. The release of Magento 2 took place in late 2015, it allows you to solve a variety of tasks of any complexity. Unlike the first version of the platform, the second has a significant improvement, namely:

• advanced and more convenient back-end and front-end interface;
• increase in productivity;
• minimized the possibility of conflicts between modules of the same functionality;
• localization of each module’s files in one place;
• advanced template system, which provides a multi-level hierarchy;
• improvement of the code quality and minimization of the possibility of errors due to the integration of useful design patterns in the code;
• full-page caching;
• PHP 7 support

For several years of active use of the platform, each developer noted that Magento 2 is a more powerful software product than the previous one, and learning the new version is more exciting.

Architecture of Magento 2

The main purpose of developing Magento 2 is to make the source code as flexible and modular as possible, customize (change the behavior of the code) and adapt it to the needs of any project. In the eCommerce platform, the user can track the kernel updates, and also apply it without causing the changes in the customized code.

Magento 2 is a Model View ViewModel (MVVM) system that supports a stricter separation between display and model in comparison to its architectural relative Model View Controller (MVC).

Layers of MVVM architecture:

• – for the business logic the Model layer is responsible, and depends on the associated class – the resource model (ResourceModel) – which is used to connect to the database. Models rely on service contracts to show their functionality to other layers of the application.
• – for that the user sees on the screen – the Html page, the “View” layer responds. In Magento 2, these functions are performed by phtml files, which localized in modules. Phtml files are attached to the ViewModel inside the Layout XML file and are called links. Layout files can also declare javascript files that are used on the destination page.
• – The ViewModel layer interacts with the Model layer and passes the necessary information to the View layer. In this eCommerce platform, these functions are attached to the Block class, which is located in each module, where all the necessary functionality is implemented. For this part, in the MVC architecture, responds the Controller. The MVVM controller regulates the flow of the user’s requests and reflects the necessary pages or redirects to others.

To summarize, it should be noted that a large number of functional extensions exist inside individual Magento 2 modules, such as helpers (functions used in the module that are not the semantic part of the business logic), translations to the module (files with multi language settings of the application), tests, UI components and much more. Also, it is worth mentioning the best practices of front-end development on Magento 2. To speed up the process of development of the online stores, the developer “does not invent a bicycle”, but simply redefines one of the standard templates that have a ready-made set of all pages of the online store, this significantly speeds up the process of website development.

Effective design is the key to the success of the project. To implement it, the project manager must correctly distribute tasks among the team members. Assessment of labor costs and analysis of the finished product compliance with the requirements set in the brief is the primary task of management, which can not be implemented without a systematic approach.

The well-coordinated work of the team is the main factor in the successful implementation of the project. During the development of an online store or an information site (regardless of price and complexity), the designer is faced with different tasks, which should be announced and planned by the project manager.

We bring to your attention a brief list of the main responsibilities of the manager coordinating the project implementation process.

1. Planning meetings and communications within the team.

Spontaneous actions of individual participants can negate the overall result of the team. It is important to distribute tasks competently among the employees and draw together the efforts of each of them. Updates and meetings – this is something that must be taken into account in the initial planning of the project.

2. Team building

The availability of appropriate skills is the main factor in staff selection. It is important to understand that each participant should increase the value of the product and improve its quality. Ability to work according to the technical task is good, but not enough. The singularity, the possibility of improvement in the process of implementation is appreciated.

3. A clear distribution of responsibilities.

The distribution of functions among project participants greatly affects the speed of work. The better each individual employee understands the overall goal of the project and its contribution to it – the better result will be done.

4. Preparation for the implementation of a design.

In addition to the layout, the participants must be prepared for the design implementation after receiving the primary files and sources. Preliminary analysis is the key to rapid error detection in the final product.

5. Creating a system of step-by-step documentation.

All edits, changes, and improvements must be documented. This process helps to avoid repeated mistakes when different bugs appear in the development and determine the key purpose of the design.

6. Criticism and review of the finished product, but not the designer as a person

The project manager must analyze the result of work for its compliance with the requirements of the brief. The designer’s inspiration and artistic abilities must not be criticized. This approach motivates the participants of a project and inspires them to work more efficiently, but the remarks about the employee’s lack of talent – vice versa, demotivate him and reduce productivity.

7. The clear direction of the designer’s work.

Elimination of defects and improvement of the project depends on the performers, the project manager should only point out the shortcomings. It is necessary to pay attention to the moments of “drifting” – when the designer focuses on a minor nuance, giving him too much energy. In this case, the project should outline the problem and direct the efforts of the employee in the necessary direction.

The designer must take into account many nuances. The visual component will be evaluated by the customer first, and then by the user. A beautiful, convenient and memorable design is an important part of the implementation of any project, be it an online store, an information portal or a personal blog. The work of the project is imperceptible, but it is very important for the effective and timely implementation of the tasks.

Outsourcing team offers its customers a full range of services – from design development to site administration and contextual advertising Google. Contact us, ask questions in the comments, and also share the materials on social networks!

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Web-studios in Ukraine and around the world are very grateful to Brendan Eich, Mark Andreessen and other programmers who created JavaScript in the far 90s. Nowadays JS is used in millions of applications around the world. While ordering a site in Ukraine, an average client does not even think how many people participated in the process of development a language with help of which his project will be implemented. Of course, since then JavaScript has not stood still, and new trends capture the minds of programmers, creating opportunities for implementation the tasks that seemed unreal until recently. In this article, we have collected several of them, which are the most interesting and promising for today.

Vue.js

The Vue.js library is the direct competitor of React.js. So which one is better? While the fans are strongly arguing, after many alpha and beta versions, Vue.js 2.0 became faster and smaller, which surely added to the library a chance to win.

REACT STORYBOOK

The obvious benefit of React StoryBook – the ability to develop components of the User Interface (UI) outside of the application. The isolated environment changes as far as the UI components are developed. React Storybook works with various React applications, including Relay, Redux and Meteor. Advantages of React StoryBook:

• an isolated components development environment;
• HMR – Hot Module Replacement;
• work with all popular React-applications (including the mentioned above Redux, Meteor, Relay and many others);
• CSS support;
• neat and convenient interface;
• work inside the application (with the help of npm modules and the boxed babel configuration);
• maintenance of static files (if they are placed inside the application) and extension as needed (supported the user’s Webpack downloaders and plugins).

INFERNO

Inferno is one of the alternatives to React. This library is very similar to React, but it takes only 8 KB and is very fast. Application – high-performance user interfaces.

BABILI OR “BABEL-MINIFY”

Babili is the minification, the first release of which took place in the summer of 2016. Babili can work together with ES6 + based on Babel. Babili accepts incoming designs from ES2015 +. Other minifications require ES5, the code must be transcoded into the appropriate language variant. This is rather inconvenient and pointless, because many programmers have already worked directly with ES2015. Babili is very flexible. Due to its modular structure, it can be used as a preset or command line tool. Another benefit – Babili performs specific code optimization for ES2015 +.

TYPESCRIPT

TypeScript is a programming language that Microsoft positioning as a development tool that extends JavaScript capabilities. With its help, the quality and clarity of the code improves. In addition, TypeScript is able to point out errors while implementation programs. By the way, the popular Atom editor fully supports TypeScript.

JQUERY 3.0

jQuery does not lose its popularity. The release of jQ 3.0 took place in June 2016. The developers created a lighter and faster version of jQuery, adding backward compatibility to it. Among other things, the creators removed some old miscalculations from the IE browser by implementing a modern web API. JQuery 3.0 is, in fact, a continuation of 2.x, but with some relevant changes.

Maybe you also know some interesting, but unnamed JavaScript trends? Share with us in the comments! If you just need a website, and you do not want to to deal with the specifics of JavaScript libraries – contact the Project manager of Outsourcing Team. We create websites of any complexity both in Ukraine and abroad!

And if you just need a website, and you do not want to understand the nuances of JavaScript libraries – contact the Project manager Outsourcing Team. We create websites of any complexity both in Ukraine and abroad!

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Social networks are a powerful source of sales, and increasing the efficiency of a blog or store is the primary task of an SMM specialist. Of course, the advices for the blogger and for the trading page may be slightly different, but we hope that each of the readers of this article will learn something new and useful for themselves.

ADVERTISING MUST BE DIFFERENT – TEST A LOT OF PICTURES AND HEADINGS

Options, options and more options. Sometimes a picture that, it would seem, will never attract the attention of the audience, “shoots” and collects hundreds of interactions, and a sketch that you liked much more than others, becomes an outsider. If the product is competitive in price and quality, and contextual advertising works poorly – test new ads. Perhaps you just have not yet found the very “magic button”, the click on which activates your customers or subscribers and will make your promotion in social networks stunningly successful.

“LEARN MORE” – HOOK FOR AUDIENCE

The “Learn more” button, which you can connect to a Facebook post, is an effective way to keep your audience’s attention longer. Adding such a psychological “anchor” stimulates the reader to visit the desired page or site on a subconscious level.

PERSONALIZED LANDING PAGES

The advertising goal is easiest to achieve when your appeal to the reader is maximally personalized. Create variable landing pages for different audiences, even if these differences seem insignificant to you. Think about what is the incentive for the action, and on this basis, test the options for text and the design of the page. Sometimes replacement of the color of one of the elements can bring an increase of conversion by a few percent. Do not forget about usability – landing page should be simple and convenient for all users who visit your site. With the help of text and design, give your client a clear understanding: you have to buy now, otherwise, you will miss a unique, never-ever-repeated opportunity.

PRICE AND “INDUSTRIAL SPYING”

For some reason, many sellers hesitate to write prices. Say, “competitor will copy”. Or put the lower price. Or someone will write: “Yes, I bought this in a supermarket three years ago”. So, the price is a pledge of honesty before the client. On the Internet, purchasing decisions, like in real life, are often spontaneous. And if a potential consumer gets involved in a lengthy process of asking for a price, then the desire to buy disappears. And he leaves without buying. There is another option – if the price is not written, the product is very expensive. I’ll go find more – where it is already written, there it is clear, how much money they want.

Another secret is the screening of the audience. Pointing the price, you immediately concentrate only on those users who are solvent. Agree, the one who is looking for a copy of expensive watches, will not click on the advertisement in social networks with the cost of the original. But if the ad is without a price – can go to see what is there. And you pay for a click. Although, of course, there are also exceptions. But rarely.

TRACK FOR RELEVANCE

Simplifying the concept of “relevance”, can be said the following: make advertising posts of the quality, that people would like and comment. And there will no desire to hide them from the tape. The higher the relevance, the better for you and your brand. You should also consider the audience’s requests – does your product is desired by those to whom you are advertising? This question requires a comprehensive logical analysis of the portrait of your consumer and the useful characteristics of the proposed product. We wish you effective promotion of your brand in social networks!

Also, you can find out what negative keywords are in contextual advertising in our article

ASK QUESTIONS IN COMMENTS, WAITING!

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What are the negative keywords and why is it so important to choose the most correct and full list of such words? How can I “merge” the advertising budget in a few hours and what nuances lie when ordering contextual advertising? The answers to these and other questions are waiting for you in today’s article from our contextologist.

Negative keywords as one of the most important stages of creation of a promotional campaign

Negative keywords (NK) stop the display of ads on request, in which they included. For example, you sell wooden windows, but do not sell plastic. On request “order windows in Kiev” your advertisement should be shown to the user, but on request “order plastic windows in Kiev” – should not. In this case, the “plastic” is the negative word. “Negatives” are collected at the planning stage of the advertising campaign, when analyzing the general pool of search queries. There are subjects that are negative by default. Often, they include words that stand for free (“free”, “gift”), terms related to the porn industry (this is striking, but experts recommend to minus them in all cases – what people will not come up with), as well as all sorts of homemade products (“Own hands”, “master class”, “recipe”). If you do not work out the list of NK thoroughly, then for non-targeted requests (for example, “how to install plastic windows with your own hands”, “how to get plastic windows free of charge under the state program”), you can literally “merge” the monthly budget in a few hours.

Influence of the negative keywords on the general progress of the advertising campaign

Careful consideration of the NK list positively affects the advertising campaign (AC) in general. First, the CTR increases. The contextual advertising system of Google Adwords is very responsive to this indicator, reducing the cost of a click and raising your ads in search results. As a result – cost savings. Another important aspect is the possibility of avoiding internal competition between your own ads. For example, there are 2 groups of ads – on request “order wooden windows” and “order wooden windows Smereka.” To avoid competition, you need to make negative the name of the producer (“Smereka”) in a group directed at wider requests.

How to apply listings

In Google Adwords, NK lists can be applied at different levels – ad groups, campaigns, and also at the level of the entire account. It is important to prescribe every word in all cases and with typos. Unfortunately, only the exact match type is available for NK. Lists are added on the “Keywords” tab – “Negative keywords”. It is also possible to add NK through the “General Library”.

For customers of context advertising – how to check the contextologist

If you order the creation of a site and after ordering a contextual advertising of Google Adwords from a third-party performer – make sure to review the list of NK after the initial configuration. In addition to standard (freebies, porn, homemade, etc.) there must also be specific words that are a feature of your project. For example, the seller of a lab coat needs to make negative the word “people”, as he will have many unrelated requests related to the song “People in white lab coats”. These specific NKs are in every project, and the more of them, the more carefully the AC is elaborated.

If you need effective contextual advertising and SEO-promotion in Kiev, Odessa, Khmelnitsky or any other city of Ukraine – contact us at any time convenient for you! And if there are additional questions on the topic of the article – ask them in the comments.

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Link to download the general list of negative keywords by subject.

When developing any website (both a small online store and a regional information portal), teamwork is important. Back-end and front-end are two parts of the whole, and the end result of the project depends on their harmonious work. First, let us look at the common sense of the concepts back-end and front-end.

Back-end is the main software and hardware part of the site, or in other words, software functionality and administrative content management (for example, the ability to edit and add products or articles). Front-end is the interface of the resource which the user directly interacts with. In other words, pictures, buttons and sliders displayed on the monitor screen after entering the domain name of the site in the address bar of the browser.

What should a Front-end developer know in order to create a good website?

The Front-end developer, unfortunately (or, conversely, luckily), is not a key figure in the process of developing software for online projects. The value of specialists of this kind is in understanding and creating the “external appearance” of the site, which users will interact with. It is desirable that all stages of the  rendering of the future resource occur with the active participation of the Front-end developer. Designers need to understand the work of the layout designer (which is often referred to as a Front-end specialist), and the latter, in turn, can suggest what and how to do better. Unfortunately, here is the complexity of interaction in the development of websites: a competent Front-end specialist must have the knowledge in many technologies and processes. The list of such knowledge is very extensive:

1. Layout designer should at least have a superficial understanding of the design (there is no harm in good taste). To create a good site You need to understand how important it is to match the finished project and the approved blueprint.
2. A specialist has to understand the operation of the server part. It is necessary to know which data arrays are transferred to the server, and which are not. A good layout designer has an idea of ​​the responsibilities of the backend developer. In addition, he/she understands which language is used on the server and knows exactly what is needed from the server part for frontend.
3. Front-end developer must understand the operation of networks. It is necessary to know what networks are like, how they work, and how quickly and reliably the data are transferred.
4. Production should be investigated. Ten products will be in the online store or ten hundred — the loads are completely different.
5. The layout designer should understand that a good site can only be created through content. By itself, the software part is a very important element, without it nothing will come out. But even without content, the most competent and correct code will not become a popular resource. The absence of a plan can cause difficulties that can not be prevented during the development of the website. Administrators and users have to be sure of the reliability and correctness of the information.
6. The content is stored in the database, which means that the Front-end developers should also understand this. A good specialist can correctly work with arrays and variables.
7. Every layout designer should be a little tester to see problems and shortcomings in time. It is better, if it happens in the process of work, and not at the very end, when the lines are lit and the deadline is very close.
8. It is important to know about the assembly systems, be able and understand how to use them. There are various collectors, for example, Webpack, Grunt, Gulp. Each of them is good in its own way, so it is better to get acquainted with several at once.
9. Understanding of the theory and methodology of developing web-sites. Each programmer writes and stylizes the code independently, so it is necessary to adhere to the generally accepted canons. It is possible that in the future someone else will have to support the project. Over time, much is forgotten, and even the self-written code after a while may seem completely incomprehensible. To prevent this from happening, You just need to adhere to generally accepted rules. Nowadays, there are such types of methodologies as:
   • BEM and independent blocks;
   • the principle of programming YAGNI — “You are not gonna need it”;
   • the principle of programming KISS — “Keep it simple stupid”;
   • the principle of programming DRY — “Do not repeat yourself”.
10. It is essentially to be knowledgeable in the configuration of web servers, because without them there will be no websites.
11. Analyzing, understanding, ability to test and establish usability.
12. Mobile design is the trend of our time. The number of mobile devices is growing very fast. The developer has to understand that his website can be accessed from any device. Large screens, small, tablets and smartphones, outdated devices… The interface should be ready for anything!

This is just part of what a Front-end developer needs to know. In fact, the principle “The more, the better” is valid in this case. All this, of course, is learned in the work. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, adaptive design, libraries and frameworks — this list can be continued for a very long time. If You need to create a good web site, take a closer look at the web studio team as a whole and ask about the qualifications of the Front-end developer in particular. A competent specialist can justify his/her knowledge and skills in a simple and accessible language. The reaction of users on the resource depends directly on the quality front-end. All possible methods of attracting traffic (SMM-promotion, search advertising, SEO) may simply not work, if the developed website will have problems with usability.

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The number of Internet users in January 2017 was 3,77 billion — this is half the World’s population. 2,8 billion people are the users of social networks.

Did You know that about 500,000 likes are put every minute on Facebook, 350 and 85 million photos and videos are downloaded daily to Facebook, Instagram and other social networks.

You need to know what relevant tools for SMM-promotion of the site and account to use to stand out in this vast ocean of users.

What trends are relevant in 2017 among SMM-specialists?

1. Video StreamingThe live-video function is now available not only on YouTube and Periscope, but also on Facebook, Instagram, Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki. Streaming video allows You to broadcast from important events, answer live questions, arrange voting or whole shows. But the main advantage is that subscribers receive notifications about the beginning of broadcasts and such posts are always at the beginning of the tape.
2. Personalize Your contentPromotion of sites in the SMM environment requires the use of special tools. Nowadays, almost all social networks provide the ability to personalize Your ads. Advertising can be shown to residents of a certain city, to men or women, to 25 or after 40 years. Retargeting is also possible — showing ads to users who have  visited Your site only once.
3. Targeting and retargeting. You can customize the display of ads for a clearly filtered audience of users with the help of these tolls. Now budgets are being spent consciously — advertising is shown to users who are very likely to become Your customers. A relatively new feature is a look-a-like audience. They consist of users who are similar to visitors to Your site. The use of targeting helps attract customers to the site, and retargeting — to keep and make the customer permanent.
4. Disappearing content (stories)Following Snapchat, the disappearing content appeared in Instagram, Vkontakte and Facebook. The publication, which lives 24 hours, allows You to post several photos at once, draw on them and do not clog Your account. Stories are automatically displayed above “permanent content”, so they will never get lost in the tape.
   In Stories You can do the following things:
   • hold contests with tips that live only 24 hours;
   • show the process of creating something or interesting moments from the life of the company;
   • announce new products or activities.

   

SMM-promotion in social networks: the struggle for traffic is tightened

All social networks go away from the chronological order of publications in the news feed. Facebook and Instagram analyze more than 10,000 factors when choosing a post to display. To pay attention to users every day becomes more difficult.

Nowadays, there are several ways to raise the post in the tape, such as:

• the use of popular content, which will be shown in the results of search engines;
• the use of targeting (paid advertisements);
• the use of new features that are rapidly gaining popularity (it is a video in Facebook , stories in Instagram);
• the use of new channels of the sites SMM promotion of, the combination of activities in different social networks.

SMM experts are increasingly turning to opinion leaders

A blogger who is well versed in goods or services of a certain category, or simply a popular person with a large audience is the leader of opinions (abbreviated as “LPO” – the Leader of Public Opinion). Fasting in the tape of a popular account can score hundreds of likes in a few minutes. If LPO talks about a product in a positive way, its subscribers pay attention to it. Especially well the strategy of “posts-reviews” works in women’s topics — cosmetics, jewelry, bags, shoes. This method of promotion has significant advantages: large coverage (depends on the number of bloggers’ subscribers), low cost of advertising and much more influence on the audience than advertising posts from the brand itself.

Opinion leaders can work for free, on barter or for money (the “product for review” option is gaining popularity). The first two options significantly reduce the cost of promoting the product. It is interesting that beginning bloggers with a relatively small audience, say, 10 thousand people, much more willingly agree to a barter version, and the result from the post may even be higher than that of a well-stocked hundred-thousander. This is explained by a warm “lamp” atmosphere, when many subscribers personally know a person and are actively interested in his/her life. The main drawback is that not every account or business can be promoted this way. For example, to promote a website development studio method is hardly suitable.

All these trends are fleeting, like the interests of users. Marketers should understand that SMM-promotion in social networks is just one of the advertising channels, the goal of which is not to get many likes and subscribers, but real profit. We also need to understand that one SMM is not enough. For example, to promote the website of a web studio, You need to connect other channels of promotion.

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Planning and in-time implementation of IT projects is a very difficult task. Only the active participation of the manager in the development process will ensure the successful implementation of the idea. Competent distribution of responsibilities between team members, the ability to resolve conflicts and negotiate with the client are the basic skills of a good specialist. The result of the team depends largely on the work of the Project manager. You can have the most creative designer, the best programmers and an interested client with a huge budget, but without a good coordinator the result will be very mediocre. Let us see what tasks the Project manager should set for the project to qualitatively complete even the most complex project?

Tasks and functions of the Project manager

In general, IT projects can fail for several reasons: due to poor planning, uncontrolled expansion or an unrealistic timeframe. Project manager is the person whose knowledge, skills and experience ensure the life cycle and the success of the implementation of the assigned tasks. The manager should have both communicative and technical skills. Often good managers are obtained from former developers or testers. In and of itself, the availability of technical knowledge does not guarantee the success of a particular specialist. An important factor is the combination of charisma, leadership qualities and the ability for negotiations. Communication with customers occupies a significant part of the working time of the Project manager, so one of his/her top priorities is the ability to listen and understand the needs of the customer. When the budget and terms are stipulated, the organizational skills come into play. Create a team and coordinate the interaction of its participants. It is a task that seems easy at first view. Minor conflicts, coordination of the sequence of changes from the customer, “fastening” of the additional functional and other “pleasant” trivia often knock out the project from the schedule. If the manager is eager to do his/her job well, then all the problems are solved quickly enough. Creating and conducting presentations for the customer is a separate task, the implementation of which requires extraordinary talents and efforts. Unfortunately, in our time clients with a low degree of understanding of software development processes are often met, but with a great desire to control the slightest changes in the course of the project individually. Interaction with them requires not only high technical skills, but also diplomatic talent.

Personal qualities and temper

The position of PM attracts wide rights: the ability to set tasks, monitor developers, make proposals and create presentations for clients. All this opens up a huge space for the realization of ambitions. But without the ability to cope with stress, clearly plan working hours and take responsibility, the project quickly gets out of control, and the result is moved further and further. Emotional stamina, organization and leadership qualities are the key to successful Project manager’s work. Not everyone can withstand such loads. Sometimes talented developers, after getting a promotion to PM, after a while return to a technical position. Therefore, when choosing a career, one needs to focus not only on technical knowledge, but also on personal abilities.

Manager of Internet projects without obtained technical education

In some cases, the Project manager may not have a technical background. Frequently such specialists are attracted when the company is oriented toward foreign markets — professionals with a good knowledge of foreign languages ​​in our country are still worth their weight in gold. If a person has a desire and necessary personal qualities, then in general terms the technical part can be studied in a few months. Of course, such a turn in a career, let us say, a linguist, requires considerable effort and huge work on yourself.

Some lyrics

Project manager is a fairly versatile character. He/she is a doctor, a fireman, and a lawyer all rolled into one.

Each project is something like a patient. Sometimes You need to prescribe medication or conduct a small operation. And the decision that is best for the patient’s health is often in the hands of the doctor. If You do not use all available means in time, the patient may even die.

The project is a house. Leaders are responsible for all fire prevention measures: from the alarm installation to the operational fire extinguishing with a hose.

Every project manager is a kind of lawyer. The rules, guidelines and “laws” systematize the efforts of the team, and the supervisor controls this process and sorts out the conflict situations.

You can apply many metaphors to describe how important the role of management in IT projects. But in by no means must we forget that a positive result depends on a whole set of factors: availability of professionals with specialized work experience and knowledge; technologies and equipment necessary for solving problems; general understanding of the specifics of the project depending on its business objectives … And, of course, a team. Or even not so, and so — the TEAM! Its participants influence each other and the result of the project, adapt, learn and communicate with each other. Design, development, promotion in social networks, search advertising … Specialists with their own point of view, certain requirements and responsibilities take care of the full work process.

Only the harmonious work of all the cogs of the mechanism can lead the project to a successful conclusion, the project that will meet the requirements of all stakeholders. And the success of the project is recognition and a well-deserved reward for the Project manager.

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Search advertising is a marketing tool that allows to show the Internet users ads that are relevant to his interests. Relevance refers to the correspondence of the result and expectations. For example: You entered in the search line a request to “Buy an iron”. And the system gives out a list of options with links to online stores immediately. The topmost of the snippets (snippet is the result of a search in the form of a small extract from the textual information of the site) will be indicated by a small marker “Advertising”. In different search engines, the marker looks different. For example, sometimes it can generally be abbreviated with 2 letters “Ad” (in English version of the browser). For example, there is a search advertising in the Google search engine at the time of this writing:

Basic terms and concepts

On the territory of Runet and Ukrnet (as the Russian-language and Ukrainian-language Internet is abbreviated) the most famous and popular are 2 search engines: Google and Yandex. Placement of search advertising is one of the main sources of their income. Specifically, to manage ads and interact with advertisers, two systems were created that are part of global corporations: Google Adwords and Yandex Direct. Basic working principles are common for both systems. We will take a closer look at Adwords and Direct in future articles.

So, in order to get better acquainted with the work and effectiveness of search advertising in general, it is necessary to remember several definitions:

1. Advertisement (abbreviated Ad) is the text that is created by the advertiser. The advertising system shows the Ad to the user. Typically, the text contains a link to the advertiser’s resource, but there is an exception: a version of Call-only advertising, which instead of the link contains only the phone number of the company.
2. CTR (Click Through Rate) is an indicator of the effectiveness of an advertisement. It is very easy to recognize it: You need to divide the number of impressions by the number of clicks (referrals) by the link in the advertisement. The more users click on the ad, the higher its CTR. But not always a high CTR is good. The announcement can be intriguing (for example, “Come to see the candid photos of the Madonna”), users will often click on it, but clicks will not bring any result.
3. Conversion is a specific action on a site that is desired by the advertiser. You can make it by the user after switching to the advertised resource. Conversion is considered to be a purchase, filling in an application, a chat message, a phone call, etc.
4. Cost Per Click (CPC) is the amount that an advertising system withdraws from an advertiser’s account, when the user clicks on his/her

Auction of the advertising displaying system

We know that search advertising (SA) can be displayed to the user as a result of search results. This SA is called the search engine. The reason for displaying an advertisement is the so-called “keywords”. If the user’s request is the same as the passphrase, the advertisement (Ad) is included in the delivery result. If not, it is ignored. The list of desired keywords is set by the advertiser in Your account settings.

To determine the Ad, that is worthy of the honor  of the show, Google Adwords and Yandex Direct use the auction system. A brief principle of the auction can be formulated as follows: the more You are willing to pay for a click, the more likely Your ad will get to a high position. But it is not so simple. In addition to CPC, impressions also check the ad quality, CTR, landing page quality, and relevance of the request. All these characteristics are taken into account by the system during distribution of the advertising issue, or, in other words, depending on the results of the analysis, decides: which advertisement from which advertiser to show on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place etc.

Types of search advertising

Advertising can be search or display. All of the abovementioned examples are mainly related to the search advertising. What is the media SA? Such ads are banners with text and pictures, sometimes also with animation, which are displayed on the partner sites of the search engine. Display advertising is a source of earnings for many sites. The resources that host ad units are part of the network of search engine partners. Yandex has the name of the YAN system (Yandex Advertising Network), and Google has the CMN (ContextMedia Network). Display ads can be shown to users based on their features. For example, You can select individual audiences according to the following items:

• by sex;
• according to the age;
• by region;
• by interests (readers of news, sports fans, etc.);
• according to the search history.

The list does not end here. You can also choose. You can also select specific sites for the domain of the site, or on the topic, and place Your advertising only there. An example of a display SA on a popular site:

Convenient system of payment for clicks, the expanded functionality of search systems and possibility of the full control over efficiency and expenses do search advertising by the convenient tool for business. Creation of a site, its promotion and SA is a guarantee of business success on the Internet. We hope that after reading this article You have found an answer to the question “What is search advertising” and learned the basic concepts associated with this term. In the following publications, You can learn more about Google Adwords and Yandex Direct systems.

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