Oct
30
How Social Network Marketing Companies Can Survive This Economy
Filed Under Search Engine Optimization, Social Network Marketing | 1 Comment
Social network marketing companies are having a challenge keeping business booming in a struggling economy. Since social network marketing is a fairly new strategy for most online businesses, it is not being seen as an essential part of their online marketing strategies. The challenge is in educating customers in the benefits of social network marketing and convincing them that it isn’t a fad or fly by night solution.
By now just about every business that has an online presence knows what SEO (search engine optimization) is, and that it is critical to their online survival. The goal is to tie social network marketing into traditional SEO practices in the minds of your customers. I have found that a lot of people aren’t totally sure what social network marketing is, especially when it comes to business applications.
We have success with social network marketing because we use it in conjunction with solid SEO tactics. This is the game plan that will get us all through the economic meltdown. It needs to start with WordPress. The only problem I have ever had with WordPress is its moniker - weblog. It is so much more than just another blogging system, it literally is the most powerful SEO tool that has ever been created. It will do the job right out of the box, but with several modifications, WordPress will propel your domain or website into the top of the SERPS and keep it there. You might ask “what’s the hitch”, but there isn’t one as long as you provide quality content on a regular basis.
Adding a WordPress system onto an existing static website is the best SEO solution. If you or your clients are creating a new Internet presence, then WordPress is the SEO / social network marketing one two punch that will allow you to OWN THE DISCUSSION on whatever topics that are in your online marketing strategy. The key to leveraging your existing search engine visibility is all in how dynamic your site is. I am not just talking about dynamic in the sense of database driven web pages, but dynamic in constantly evolving content that is updated by your site’s users through commenting.
Prior to kicking off campaigns on Facebook and MySpace, you must have a platform to deliver the rich media that makes social network marketing work. My next installment will show you what plugins are required for you to Own the Discussion within the search engines.
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Oct
23
What Google Wants - Branding With SEO - Owning The Discussion
Filed Under Google Updates, Search Engine Optimization, Social Network Marketing | 1 Comment
The other day Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt stated that the Internet is a cesspool and that the way to succeed online is through branding and discussion. While I have been complaining for a while about how Google’s SERP’s are watered down, it is nice to see them actually agreeing, and doing something about it. Since Google has cracked down on sites that sell link juice it has been increasingly more difficult to obtain quality inbound links that are relevant to your content. So what is a webmaster to do?
I had a discussion with a friend of mine, Christian Sterner the CEO and founder of Wellcomemat a video portal for videoagraphers, and we were talking about Universal Search and how to best leverage all of wellcomemat.com’s user generated content. I was pushing the commenting, telling him that they need to reward users that ask and answer questions. It was then that he said something that really put the whole thing into perspective: “the best sites online, OWN THE DISCUSSION on their topics”. That really puts the whole thing in a nutshell. I have proven time and time again that sites that push out quality content and that have users that ask question in the form of comments, rule the SERPs for their topics.
How To Own The Discussion
While Google is pushing branding, which I agree with to an extent, I have always pushed content and comments as I have found that WordPress posts historically get into the SERPs quickly, but tend to fade away over time. UNLESS THEY ARE HEAVILY COMMENTED. It was through this information that I found a great WP Plugin that takes the most recent comments and allows you to put them in a sidebar widget. I use that along with another plugin that lists the most popular posts based upon commenting. By putting both of these in the sidebar of the homepage of my client’s blog, I have seen an increase in placement for ALL of the posts that were linked from the home page through BOTH the popular posts and recent comments.
We all hate comment spam, and I am not in any way shape or form suggesting that you spam other peoples sites with comments. I am stating that you need to get comments going on your own site. You need to break the ice and ask and answer your own questions at first so that users see their questions will be answered in a timely manner. If you can get users to ask questions on your posts, you will OWN THE DISCUSSION.
Social Network Marketing at one time was a great source of inbound links, but that has changed since Google strong armed them into nofollowing their outbound links. Now social network marketing is good for exposure and traffic building, and of course branding, but little else except for a couple of document sharing sites. While SMO and social network marketing are still part of the game plan for SEO, we are focused more with on page optimization and commenting to drive discussion. Feel free to give us a call if you want to get started owning the discussion on Google. 727-251-2058
Oct
6
Social Media Optimization - Practical Applications
Filed Under Search Engine Optimization | 2 Comments
Social Media Optimization or SMO is being talked about quite a bit by online marketers these days. What is it, and why should you care? As you know by now, I am a big proponent of social network marketing strategies that are used in conjunction with good search engine optimization (SEO) practices. Social Media Optimization is yet another term for the same thing - Web 2.0 Applications.
Let’s break down SMO, SEO and Web 2.0.
SEO - Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization or SEO is a process that involves making a website perform well in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). It involves a group of standards and practices that make your website appealing to search engine spiders. That includes but is not limited to:
- Good Domain- the best scenario is to have the keywords within the domain itself. There is no need to separate the keywords or phrases with hyphens, in fact sites without hyphens rank better than ones with hyphens.
- Good URL Structure- the keywords must appear within the URL itself. This can become problematic with dynamic database driven sites; however tools such as mod rewrite and 301 redirects can make even the ugliest database driven URL’s pretty in the eyes of the search engines. Even Miva has built in SEO tools now. The keywords have to be in the URL for spiders to understand and gauge importance of any given web page.
- Deep Link Navigation- otherwise known as breadcrumb navigation, deep links are paths that your visitors follow as they traverse your website. By displaying the links to your major sections, you are giving both your visitors and the search engines a path to follow around your site. The better a spider can follow links and index content, the better ranking you will get.
- Keyword Density - also known as keyword stuffing, it is critical for you to take the keyword or keyword phrase that you are promoting and incorporate it into the URL, page title, meta tags, content, H2 tags and links. By bolding or italicizing the keywords, you are telling the search engines that they are important.
Social Media Optimization
SMO is using rich media like video and podcasts to drive traffic and enhance your site. Don’t get caught up in the trap of spending a lot of time promoting your site and content on useless sites like Digg. They don’t give any SEO value at all, but can help with traffic if your content can generate interest.
Web 2.0 applications like RSS and WordPress are very powerful SEO tools. By cross promoting your sites through video and podcasts you will be able to get more functionality out of your web presence and give your readers and site users better benefits. It all starts with quality content!
The best use for social media is to build brands and drive traffic. Since Google strong armed social networks into nofollowing outbound links on their user generated content. At one time Flickr was an outstanding source for Yahoo backlinks. Now it is a waste of time. There is only one Social Network site that still produces quality SEO links. I’ll be writing about how to leverage that site in my next article. Give me a call if you can’t wait to find out what that is!
Learn more about social network marketing here.
Oct
1
Many webmasters woke up to lower Page Rank and fallen rankings this morning as Google does another PR update. Over the weekend Google updated its Page Rank toolbar meter. Usually this doesn’t effect rankings simultaneously, but this update is different! Some websites that lost PR also lost substantial placement as well. As I was checking my client’s rankings after the update, I noticed quite a few competitors’ sites had fallen. Looking at their PR confirmed that this time Google followed through with it’s threat against sites selling links, and not only lowered Page Rank, but rankings as well.
Websites that have quality unique content were the beneficiaries of updated Page Rank on their newer content. Some WordPress pages that I created 3 weeks ago now have a 4 PR. This is the fastest update I have seen in years. If Google continues to make quick Page Rank updates that coincide with changes in the index, then they will go back to being the most relevant search engine. I have been complaining for a while about Google’s watered down results, but this could be a new turn towards Google being able to get spammers and scrapers out of the top results.
Duplicate content and ad only sites that steal content are one of the top 10 Internet Plagues, and the one that irks me the most. We provide only unique and researched content for our clients and there is nothing worse than someone stealing your content and making money off of it with ads. Hopefully these sites will fall all the way out of Google!