Salina Travel is one of the leading tourist offices in Athens. Its presence in the tourist Industry lasts almost 25 years. They have established a very good reputation among their clients. Their success is reflected in the increasing clientele, good financial figures, and the awards they received from various international organisations in the past years.

Few years ago, they decided to expand their presence by using the possibilities offered by the new technologies. In order to cope with the new strategy they decided to invest money and effort to establish a presence in the internet hopping to enhance their presence in the market and, at the same time, to increase their share of the tourist market.

An important element of their strategy, was to collaborate with website developers and not with one of the leading companies of the digital industry. This decision had a serious impact on the cost by keeping it low at the initial stage but creating serious obstacles in their strategy, as we will see below.

The website was developed and delivered on time, containing all information that Salina Travel wanted to incorporate in the website, in order to help travellers to plan their travels and vacation. But, the developed website could not regarded as a user friendly one and its effectiveness was in doubt.

The management of Salina travel was unaware of the internet marketing techniques, and the believed that problem was created due to lack of presentation of the company by the search engines. So, they tried, with external assistance, to solve the problem. They made additions and alterations to the website, with a relevant cost, but they did not change the design and the structure of the website in order to make it Search Engines friendly.

Despite the effort, Salina Travel continued suffering from the inefficiency of the website. This situation became critical. Finally, the management realised that the problem was the result of their collaboration with people not having the appropriate expertise in the field of web design and development as well as digital marketing strategies.They realised that they had invested money and time with no success. So, they decided to act fast in order to rectify the unpleasant situation.

After conducting a market research, they approach intros.gr. They approached us to have an integrated Internet approach. More money had to be invested, but the new investment was less that the money already spent in order to have the outcome they were looking for. Moreover, they did not get the outcome they wanted.

This new approach was undoubtedly more efficient. During the initial discussions, Intros.gr made clear to Salina Travel that their first priority should be the formation of an effective internet marketing strategy plan. Also they made clear that the success should be relied upon the adoption of the appropriate technical infrastructure. Salina Travel posses a large bulk of information offered to its clients - existing and potential ones - through its main and satellite websites (www.greeceferryticket.com and www.greecehotelholiday.com ), so Intros.gr recommended the use of a high performance dedicated server in order to support these websites. Intros.gr, also, underlined to the client the importance of an appropriate marketing strategy, which should include items such as newsletter, social media channels, search engines etc.

We helped them understand that the base of an effective Internet marketing strategy is a well designed and developed website. Intros.gr stated to Salina Travel the importance for the redesigning and the development of their website. With the client’s approval, Intros.grredesigned the website, changing both the structure and appearance.

In the new design, we used, mainly, the red colour of the logo. The purpose is to create a pleasant mood to the visitors of the website and also to underline the importance of various parts of the website.

We designed a new user-friendly menu. We introduced, small icons in order to direct the visitor to the appropriate part of the website i.e. a small airplane for the air tickets. This method was applied in the whole website. An additional benefit is that the new menu is applicable, also, to tablets and smart-phones by using the techniques of Responsive Design.

We changed, the way of the reservations were made, by introducing new forms and made them easy to be filled by the clients. Proper attention was given to special offers and discounts given to the clients by Salina Travel. 

The website of Salina Travel was linked to the satellite ones greecehotelholiday.com and greeceferryticket.com. This method, in one hand assists the visitor of the website to collect all the necessary information fast and easy and in the other hand offers the opportunity to upgrade the rank of the website by the search engines.

It is important to mention, that Salina Travel treats every user, not only as a potential client, but also as a person seeking travel information. Based on its multiyear experience, Salina Travel can provide a wide range of travel information. All this information is presented in the front page of the website in a completely autonomous and user friendly section, so any user can access it easily and find out what he is looking for.

It is obvious that, we applied all necessary techniques of Responsive Design, in order to give access to the website through mobile devices.

In order to develop the new website design requirements, intros.gr used Joomla, with K2 component in conjunction with K2 responsive scroller.

We used Joomla in order to provide an easy content management website. Editing in website can be performed by Salina Travel’s staff, even if they have basic knowledge of computers and internet.

We stayed focused on Search Engine Optimization. Users can reach Salina Travel’s website easily and rapidly. With the redesign and development of the website, we manage to make the website appear in the first results on users’ queries.

The next benefit, we gained from the project, was to keep users in the website by helping them to find out that they are looking for and to decide the best option for them. Users visiting the website do not abandon it, disappointed by its complexity.

The Salina Travel case, as a conclusion, proves the necessity for a complete internet marketing plan in which the major role will be played by a well designed and developed website supported by other strategies such as newsletters,social media etc. In the years of our experience, in intros.gr we concluded, that "the cost of a complete internet presence project, is far less that the cost of executing every different aspect of the project by professionals who do not cooperate and collaborate".

Salina Travel, is already seeing the efficiency of their new web presence to rise. They learn, unfortunately in the hard and costly way, that a big investment is not enough. It should be put on a company or a team of professionals, characterized by knowledge, experience and a global look on your internet presence.

Intros.gr recognises that a website is an asset and it should be treated as such. Intros.gr is ready to offer to its client tailor made internet marketing plans based on a well designed and fully functional website. Do not hesitate to request a quote for your website and a marketing strategy or contact us for any questions you might have.

On February 2015, Facebook announced that it changes the way it is charging for Ads.

Advertisers, from now on, will pay only for viewed ads, (viewed impressions) instead of a “shared” impressions. (ads that are served in the page but not actually viewed on the screen of the user).

The reason for this change is quite simple. If somebody actually see the ad has a greater chance to be customer of the company advertised.

To monitor, just the shared impressions, may be easier to manage but it is not quite accurate, because a served impression may not be actually seen.

The innovation of Facebook is a system that actually monitors the impressions, the moment an ad enters the screen of a browser, both on desktop and on mobile devices. Using this method of monitoring advertisers will pay a fair price for the real impact of their ad will create. Facebook will not charge for ads that aren’t viewed.

Facebook, in the following months will apply similar standards to organic contents from business.

It is obvious that this change on charging method, combined the new application “About its Ads Relevance”, that Facebook introduced, aims to persuade advertisers that every penny spent on Facebook advertisement is worthy. If this is a way, for Facebook to increase the overall advertising cost, remains to be seen.

A dynamic and different dance school, Training Factory, decided to proceed with the reconstruction of its website and offer its clients, information and answers about the dance and sports.

So we started, the team intros.gr, already our journey with the team of Training Factory, following our principles for website design and development, in order to provide a website as they have dreamed it of. 

Springtime!!  The perfect time for renewal and rejuvenation!! In spring 2015, new and existing customers came to us once again to fulfil their needs and expectations.

Mr. Kostis Spirou trusted intros.gr in the past for the design and development of NextDeal portal, as well as the design and development of websites "Ora Asfalisis" and "Kindergarden for parents". This time, he asked intros.gr to bring his bimonthly journal "Asfalistiko NAI" to the internet era.

For this project, intros.gr will provide a wide range of services in the same professionalism and credibility as always.  We will present it to you soon!

Tourist season is about to begin and Barbarossa Paros, one of the oldest clients of intros.gr, decided to redesign and upgrade its website.  Since they trust the outcome that intros.gr provides, they assigned to intros.gr the new project as well.

In intros.gr we hear what our customers want and we try to provide a website as they have envisioned it.  We are working on this project in order to provide an attractive, fully functional, website which follows all S.E.O. rules, before tourist season opening.

In the past few months, the number of autoplay videos posted in Facebook has increased significantly. So, the next great challenge for Facebook is winning the bet of video-advertising.

The autoplay videos started as a feature given to videos posted by individuals. Nowadays, it is extended to advertising as well. To upload a video on YouTube and then share it through Facebook is outdated, because users have to follow the link of the video. Today, Facebook gives us the alternative of autoplay videos, as long as they are uploaded to Facebook directly.

Through this feature, Facebook is looking forward increasing its advertising market share. It also pushes advertising companies to be more creative in production of their advertising videos, since the have to catch attention of users for the first seconds of video play.

Advertisement through Facebook, with the use of autoplay videos, targets to increased number of users and aims to increase the market share for advertisers.

The statistics, of international organizations, already reflect these market trends. It is obvious, even from the end of 2014, that Facebook tends to be a key player in autoplay advertising videos, but advertisers still considering YouTube the main channel of promotional videos.

In the future we will be able to see if this will be the case or if competition will come up with new ideas to change the game once again.

We have already discus in previous post, how the creation of a fan page in Facebook, can introduce to your potential customers, your area of expertise. It is obvious that the design of your fan page in Facebook, should give the opportunity to potential customers to visit your website in the easiest way possible.

We have also analyzed, how Facebook fan page, can increase traffic, publicity and spread-ability of your company. In a future post, we will discuss about Facebook applications, that we design and develop in intros.gr, in order to reach even grater target groups.

At this point, we should discuss the “other side of Facebook” , the negative one.

Keep in mind that “Facebook is double sided coin!!”

On one side, you can get all the benefits that we have already discuss but on the other side, the same rate of publicity stands for any negative or even offensive comments. Since negative comment, usually, have more impact on company’s reputation, you should be aware that someone has to handle all negative comments in short-time.  

And don’t forget!!

The way a company handles bad publicity (Risk Management) reflects the quality of the company.

From what we have already discussed, makes it clear, that dealing with your fan page in Facebook is a full time job. Whenever you feel ready to invest on Social Media, do not hesitate to request a quote or contact us for any questions raised. 

Tip of the day: In order to post a new link in your fan page you should visit the following link:

https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/og/object/

Nowadays, Social Media enable us to take advantage of the interaction of their users. The most popular social network is still Facebook, the subject of today’s post.

The structure and design of Facebook is based on “likes” what is called the “triggering event”.

What do we mean by that?

Every user’s like is spread among his friends. It appears in the newsfeed of his friends, like all other posts. Statistical data show, that a lot of (even more than 90%) his friends will be intrigued to see what his friend liked and probably make a new like. Their friends will be notified too and so on. It is obvious that as the post spreads, the expansion rates will be lower, but before this happens, the post would have reached or exceed share-ability targets. An interesting post in you fan page in Facebook could be spread virally and it will create awareness for your company.

Your Fan Page in Facebook shouldn’t be just…a page!!

Your fan page should be designed in the same professionalism, as your company’s website, and your company’s internet presence. Your logo should be placed in the space provided in order to appear in every post you make. A short and to the point description of your activities should also be included. Creating an excellently designed website, you will be able to exploit to the full extend the recognition and awareness that Facebook offers. You should keep in mind, that you want to create a fan page in Facebook in order to introduce to your potential customers, your area of expertise. That is why, you should give to Facebook users easy access to your website.

In a later post we will discuss about Facebook applications that we, in intros.gr, design and develop in order to increase traffic, publicity and spread-ability of Facebook fan page. If you are ready to invest on Social Media, intros.gr is here for you! Do not hesitate to request a quote or to contact us for any questions you might have.

An extensively used tool, in Search Engines Optimization Campaigns, is Webmaster Tools. It is an application, provided by Google and it is free of charge.

It is very important to state that this application, as its name indicates, is addressed to webmasters, professionals with wide knowledge and high experience in website development.

Unlike Google Analytics, which is a supervisory tool, as we analyzed in previous posts, Webmaster Tools allows changes and modifications to the website. Every change or modification through Webmaster tools has immediate effect on search engines results, evaluation and ranking. It is understandable that any modification made by amateurs could bring results other than the desired ones.

For that reason, a professional should be involved in change or modification of the website through Webmaster Tools.

But it is handful to any owner or administrator of a website to be aware of the information that Webmaster Tools provides and how the evaluation and ranking of the website is effected.

Signing in to the application, we can see an overview of the website in question.

This overview is divided in four major parts:

• The first part contains any messages concerning major technical issues of the website that should be fixed the soonest possible.
• The second one, is called “Crawl errors” and contains information about the server’s errors, pages not found, pages with long server response time e.t.c.
• The third part is about “Search Queries” and it gives information about questions, number of views on these questions, number of clicks e.t.c.
• The last part of this overview gives information about sitemaps (if an xml sitemap is submitted). We can see information about the number of URL’s submitted, indexed, or any warnings regarding URL’s.

Looking at the home page of Webmaster Tools, besides the Overview, we can see a menu on the left, with options regarding the information given in the overview.

The first option on the menu is “Show search”.

This gives a drop down list of options regarding Structured data, Labeling data, improvements HTML and Sitelinks. All aspects that affect the evaluation and ranking of the website by search enginges.

Structured data are essential for a website. Web developers use structured data to provide structured information on a website and its contents to search engines. Adding structured data or labeling data will improve the evaluation and ranking of a website by search engines, as well as the experience that provides to users when searching.

Tip: In cases of lack of structured data, search engines will try to collect information about the website and its contents automatically. In that case the evaluation and ranking will be lower than a website with similar content but containing structured data. That is why is very important for the web developers to include structured data in the website they develop.

The second option is “Site search”.

It contains sub-options to see analytical data regarding search queries, links to website, internal links, international targeting and finally any problems in the way website’s pages show on mobile devices. Through search queries, we find information about the questions under which the website was viewed, and information about the pages that users clicked to see.

On the third option, called “Google Directory”, there is a drop down list of options, giving analytical data on open status, keywords content, blocked urls, or URL addressed to be removed.

Next option on the home page of Webmaster Tools is about “Detection”. Here, we find analytical data on crawl errors, detection statistics, Robots.txt Tester (a special file where we declare to search engines which pages of our website, will not appear in searches), or the sitemap statistics (in case that a xml Sitemap is submitted).

The two last options in home page menu more technical but not less significant. The first one is “Safety issues” where we can check if the website is compromised and if there is a malicious content in the website, probably inserted by the ones who compromised the website. The second one is called “Other Resources” where we can find useful tools for the optimization of the website such as Structured Data Test Tool (we already analyzed the importance of structured data in the website), in order to check our structured data, Google Places, a free local platform from Google in order to mark on the map the location of the business and help customers to find what they are looking for, and finally Page Speed Insights where we can see how we can make faster the pages of the website in all devices.

It is obvious that the less problems or warnings on a website the better evaluation and ranking this website has by search engines.It is also obvious that all the information provided by Webmaster Tools for the optimization of the website is very important but any changes or modifications needed to be done should not be performed by amateurs. They are mainly technical information and all problems and warnings should be fixed by web developers highly trained and experienced ones.

In intros.gr, we have the knowledge and experience, as you can see in our extended portfolio, and in testimonials,  to optimize your website to search engines. Ask for a quote for your online needs or contact us for any questions you might have on Search Engine Optimization.

In previous post we talked about Google Analytics and how essential is the interconnection of the website the said application.

The data provided by Google Analytics is enormous, and in order to keep track, the application gives this data divided in five major categories.

• Real Time
• Audience  
• Acquisition
• Behavior
• Conversions

Real Time Online

Data In real time online, we can have reports on how many users are checking the website, which pages they are looking, geographical data as well as the key words used to end up in the website, or the links they used.

Audience or Number of users

As the title implies, in this category we can have data cumulative or analytical on demographic data of users (age, sex), interests, geographical data (language and location), whether they are new user in website or returning and many more.

Acquisition or Where did they came from

In category «Acquisition», we see data regarding the browser the users use to come to the website, the type of device they use (desktop, tablet, mobile). Data such as direct access or organic search is also given in this category. We can see what links they used to land in the website, if the used facebook or any other Google Ad campaign.

Behaviour

In «Behaviour» category, we find data such as which pages of the website users visited, how much time they sent in each one, from which pages the abandoned the website and other usefull information, that can help us change the content of the pages in order to be more user friendly and to what the users asking for.

Conversions

In this category, the application gives us the opportunity to set up goals for the visit of the website and find out whether these goals are met or not.

As a conclusion, we will, once again, mention, that the data provided by  Google Analytics is of the essence, in order to be sure that what we offer is what our audience asks for. In order to achieve it we need to ask for professional guidance. Whether you already have a website and you ask for the search engine optimization of it or if you are thinking to start up your own web business, feel free to ask for a quote, or to contact us for any questions you might have.