Today, growth continues to remain a challenge. The RBI has lowered its gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for 2012/13 to 5.7 per cent from the earlier projection of 6.5 per cent. Global bank HSBC has lowered its GDP growth estimate to 5.2 per cent from 5.7 per cent. Clearly, there is room for the RBI to reduce the repo rate by 25 to 50 basis points from eight per cent to support growth at this juncture.

However, there is a new variable that could hinder a softening of interest rates in 2013. And that variable is the Consumer Price Index (CPI ), which is an indicator of retail inflation.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI ) is usually the main indicator for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for while taking a decision on interest rates. The WPI had softened to 7.18 per cent by December 2012.

However, the CPI was still in double digits in December, at 10.56 per cent.

While the WPI is computed on an all-India basis, the CPI is constructed for specific segments. Today, there are actually three different CPIs covering different segments of the population: urban, rural, and a combination of both.

The WPI is no longer sticky and actually fell to 7.18 per cent from 7.50 per cent in October last year. But the WPI has a broader coverage than the CPI in terms of the number of commodities, quotations, non-agricultural products and tradable items.

In the past, the RBI has often been criticised for using the WPI as the headline inflation index. Many economists and experts believe that it fails to capture the real prices of goods in the neighbourhood market, such as, say, of onions or potatoes. They suggest that the CPI is the correct indicator, as it reflects ground realities.

Once you develop your new website, all you need is to bring your prospective customers and make them access your new website. Although, due to numerable websites already there on the internet available, establishing your online presence is not a piece of cake, but now with the help of low cost SEO techniques and various tactics, it has been made a lot easier. The main task, which is to be fulfilled, is to bring traffic to your website.
Internet is considered a huge reservoir and hundreds of people are registering their websites daily. Therefore, the best way to stand out among all these websites and increase the visibility of your website on search engines is to get SEO services from a well-reputed SEO company. SEO is the gateway to increase your presence online, by adopting various methods and techniques.

SEO for Sales and Traffic

As SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization, the name says it all. Companies providing these SEO services will use various techniques and get your website to the top rankings in the search engine like Google, which is visited by trillions of people all around the globe, every minute. As an individual, we prefer website that is top-ranked in the search list when we enter a keyword or a key phrase. So it is highly important for every website owner to use such services, make it to the top rankings, which will bring huge traffic by the end of the day, resulting in massive sales and achieving profit optimization.

 SEO Is Great, But Not at Any Cost

To get successful in your domain, such SEO services should be used. In order to make these services cost effective and affordable, these companies at a very logical and realistic price which every businessman can afford provide many of Low Cost SEO techniques. Hiring a SEO expert is not sensible but giving this responsibility to a well-reputed and reliable company is a better option. Some of the best Low Cost SEO techniques are considered to develop back-links, which will ultimately lead to online traffic. These SEO companies rendering their services have an extensive knowledge regarding website optimization, so these services should be availed. Another cost effective technique is to task part in the link exchange. Search ranking can be spiked if you permit accepting links and making other website accepts your website link. With million numbers of websites, taking part in this reciprocal linking can turn out to be beneficial.
Domain Names, Keywords, Usability, and Other Methods of Rising in SERPs

Another way to increase your site rating and adopting a low cost SEO technique is to add keyword rich articles to your website. Readers will be highly interested in reading your well-written fresh articles, will compel them to visit your website, and will invite others too. One of the best techniques is to get a short domain name. You will be dumb-founded once you will pick a creative and catchy domain name, which people use randomly and are common. This will surely increase the popularity of your website in days. Lastly, the cheapest way, which is usually overlooked, is to make your website user friendly. In this way, people will visit your website for a longer period and most often. Therefore, such Low Cost SEO techniques should be adopted to get the best possible results.

Earlier it was Google Panda that lashed many websites, and now it is Google Penguin continuing where Panda left. This is one of the major problems with online business, as search engines tighten their rules websites are hit randomly this shows the need to have an effective SEO plan in place before starting an online business.

A typical SEO plan outlines your marketing goals, your target customers, and plans to achieve those goals. There are plenty of SEO techniques, but a SEO plan that has a right proportion of various techniques is more likely to succeed than a SEO plan that focuses too much on a single SEO technique say, keyword optimization.

Here are some of the SEO techniques you can consider having in your SEO plan.

SEO Plan: Keyword Selection

As search engines rely on keywords to filter out web pages, selecting right keywords is vital for any online business. The very first thing is to find out the approximate set of keywords your target customers are likely to use. This can be done by using any keyword research tools.

As of now, the most widely used is Google Keyword research tool. Using this tool is quite simple and straightforward, except that you need to pay keen attention on certain important parameters like broad selection, specific selection, competition, and search volume.

As the name says, specific selection would allow you to choose exact keywords whereas broad selection would allow you to choose words that are almost closer to your keywords. So, by keeping both broad and specific selection checked, you can pick up a mix of keywords that are likely to attract wide range of customers.

The next two important parameters are competition and search volume. Keywords with low competition and high search volume means users are in need of certain information and there aren’t many websites meeting the criteria.

Therefore, you can pick up such keywords and provide useful content to boost your website’s visibility naturally. However, you need to choose optimum number of keywords, as stuffing your content with too many keywords would make search engines penalize your website.

Additionally, you can also focus on keyword phrases. Most of the time, people search for specific information like reviews, comparison, advice on certain products, or help with purchase decisions. So you can either have entries in standard rating websites or include appropriate content in your website.

This will prove that your website has much more than mere generic content.

SEO Plan: Website Content

After choosing the right set of keywords, you might be tempted to stuff your content with those keywords. Theoretically, a search engine should rank such sites well, but it doesn’t work that way. Search engines gauge your content using different parameters like your authority, links shared in social media sites, validity of information, current trends, and demand for a topic.

Facebook launched a recommendation bar on Thursday that allows users to discover new articles based on what others in your network are reading and sharing.

When a Facebook user likes an article via the new recommendation bar, the story is published to their Timeline — similar to what happens when you use the Like button — and it shows up in friends' news feeds.

"The recommendation bar is another option for websites — particularly blogs and media sites — to be more social and active, keep people on the site longer, distribute content across Facebook and benefit from referral traffic," a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable.

Here's what it looks like: While a Facebook member reads an article on the site, a small pop-up window displays at the bottom of the screen, which highlights recommended articles and prompts them to like the page, according to a blog post from Facebook developer Jeffrey Spehar on the company's developer page.

"Recommendations are based on content that friends have explicitly liked and shared in your app or website," Spehar wrote.

SEE ALSO: Here’s What Facebook’s ‘Want’ Button Will Probably Look Like

Facebook has been testing the social plugin with sites such as Mashable, Wetpaint and The Mirror. So far, Facebook says, the feature has been successful in getting articles in front of more eyes.

"In early tests, sites are 3x times the click through on the stories it recommends than through the Recommendations Box," Spehar said.

To install the social plugin, users will need to copy a few lines of the Facebook code and paste it onto their site. For more details on how to set it up, you can check out Facebook's step-by-step instructions on its developer page.

"We recommend you include Open Graph markup on your articles so Facebook can properly display them on the site," he added.

Think of the websites you visit the most — chances are they are clean, professional, and easy to navigate. This is no coincidence: the human mind takes just a millisecond to make a definitive decision as to a site’s credibility, and this initial judgment is based entirely on aesthetics which means a good web design is critical for retaining visitors. So before you get going, consider these 6 design tips:

1) Plan Your Site: Before turning on your computer, consider the layout, page structure and how users will move from one page to another (navigation). Then, sketch out your site on paper.
2) Understand Your Audience: Knowing your audience will help set the tone for your content and layout, as you identify what visitors will be looking for on your site. It’s also important to consider popular web browsers and your visitor’s screen resolution size so that they see your site the way you intended; you can find this data in most site analytics tools. If you’re not sure how wide to make your site, 960px is a great place to start.
3) Allow for Easy Navigation: Since people often read from left to right and top to bottom, the upper left-hand corner of your site is the first place your visitors will look. Place your navigation buttons here and keep them consistent, along with font and color choices, for easy reading and fluid movement from page to page.
4) Choose a Color Scheme: If you’re designing your site around an image, try uploading it to a color palette tool, like DeGraeve.com‘s, for example, for complementary color suggestions. Be sure to remain consistent with your design patterns, and stick to no more than three font types and colors.
5) Use High Quality Photos: In order to give your site a more professional appearance, all images should be clear, focused, and of high resolution. An alternative to taking your own photos is buying them fromistockphoto.com; at about five-dollars an image it’s an inexpensive way to visually take your website to the next level.
6) Test Your Site, Then Test Again: When you’ve created or redesigned your site, ask friends and family to test it for you. They may find things you’ve missed, or point out areas of confusion.

When paired with quality content, executing these tips appropriately will help retain first-time visitors and transform them into regulars.

The BSE benchmark Sensex rose for the third straight day by adding over 27 points in early trade on Thursday on sustained buying by funds amid a firm trend in the Asian region.

The 30-share barometer rose by 27.16 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 19,741.40, with metal, oil and gas and capital goods sectors leading the rise. The index had gained nearly 288 points in the previous two sessions.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty inched up by 2.85 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 5,996.10.

Brokers said sustained buying by funds and retail investors amid a firm trend in the Asian region following strong overnight gains at the U.S. market mainly influenced the trading sentiment.

Meanwhile in the Asian region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose by 0.06 per cent in early trade today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 2.35 per cent higher in yesterday’s trade.

Legendary violinist M.S. Gopalakrishnan, known for his sound knowledge of both, Carnatic and Hindustani music, passed away here around 2.00 am on Thursday. He was admitted to a city hospital following complaints of breathlessness on Wednesday evening. He was 82.

Hailing from the revered Parur lineage, MSG - as he was fondly referred to in music circles - had a remarkable career as an accompanist in his younger days. He later became one of the most important names in solo violin recitals - along with his contemporaries Lalgudi G. Jayaraman and T.N. Krishnan.

A recipient of several honours including the Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri and the Sangita Kalanidhi title awarded by The Music Academy, MSG was a classic example of an artiste who was always open to new ideas and influences. His style can be seen as a seamless blend of the classical and Hindustani idioms. His musical contributions spanned over 75 years.

He is survived by his wife Meenakshi, daughter, violinist and prime disciple M. Narmadha, violinist-son Suresh and daughter Latha.