The shifting rules of search mean that social media is more valuable than ever
The rules of search have changed. In fact, they change on a daily basis. But never so dramatic has rank been uprooted since the explosion of social media. Social media sites, especially the powerhouses of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, have become back-link central for affecting organic search results.
Social media’s influence on driving business via the web is expected to surpass SEO in 2013, according to eMarketer. Web marketers and PR professionals must pay attention to how social media affects search, and ultimately how it can change the rules of online visibility and (online) brand engagement.
Changing the Game
Prior to Facebook’s takeover of the online universe (800 million active users today), online visibility in natural search was a sum of several, measurable components: SEO site compliance on site structure and meta tags/content, directory link submissions, and qualified and relevant site/blog linking. In 2010, the game officially changed, with Google’s support of social media—author reputation, bookmarking, and commenting, as well as a number of other social factors (likes, tweets, re-tweets, shares)—as a major factor in how it will rank websites and blogs in its algorithm. Real-time search in Google meant that search was only as valuable as the latest blog post, social share, and comment.
Today, the line is blurring. And this causes some confusion for web marketers. Should they focus on optimizing and driving traffic to their social pages? To their web site? Where does their online brand live? How do they communicate their brand value proposition, whether their personal or corporate brand?
The good news is that technology has advanced so that web marketers can manage their content and sites through the use of simple and effective blogging tools. Further, that those blog tool properties, such as WordPress, support integration of social plug-ins, and necessary content for social sharing, including video, effective product/service literature, and tagged imagery. And so, marketers can use social and manage their web presence to support online brand consistency.
How to Take Advantage of Social Media
So how can you use social media to increase your SEO rank and ensure that the rank and ensuing traffic will convert to business? First, you must create and understand a parallel social media optimization (SMO) / search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. All creators of content on your team (copy, social commenting, videos, and imagery) need to be on one brand team. The approach must be holistic. A unified brand message must drive visibility across all content, all channels.
To define a common strategy for execution across standard search engine optimization practices as well as across social media content development and sharing, marketers must re-think keyword development. The questions become less about search visibility vs. obvious competition and more introspective in terms of what the corporate and executive brand mean. Ask your team questions such as: What is our brand value proposition? What do we want our audience to say about us? How will we incent out audience? How will we be leaders? Why will people follow us? Answering these questions will help you to zone in on your top branded, broad and narrow-based keywords.
Once these target keyword phrases have been developed, you will require an actionable task plan to follow and with which to measure effectiveness of you new blended social/SEO strategy. Within needs to be: content types and frequency, planned outreach per social channel, and media (social) buys/ads with effective messaging and resulting goals. Determining success in social affects search visibility such that quality of the author, relevancy of the topical content, number of followers, number of comments/re-tweets, number of shares of blog posts must be considered and followed for search visibility to pull from success in these metrics.
When determining how you will rank in natural search for branded and business-driving keywords, first do the ABCs of SEO work in terms of on-site optimization wherever your online marketing plan calls for conversion. Once that has been completed, reign in your social and search teams to determine your custom strategy and measurable plan. Remember that, just like traditional SEO practices, SMO work must be consistent, authentic, managed daily and measured for success.
Showing posts with label SMO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SMO. Show all posts
Monday, 26 November 2012
Thursday, 24 May 2012
Google Plus Tips- 13 Ways to Get Increased Google Plus Followers
Google plus has entered in the social media as a competition to different social networking sites. It has given direct competition to Facebook which is a social media giant. Many analysts are predicting that in coming months Google Plus will gain more popularity than Facebook. It has given a nice opportunity to internet users and online marketers to increase their presence.
They should not wait for the declaration of winner and start building their presence as Google Plus circles, friends and followers. Here we have brought a complete list for you with the help of which you can easily get increased followers on Google Plus.
Ways to increase followers on Google Plus
1. Build Google Plus Circle: First thing you need to do is to create a Google Plus Circle. It includes the people with whom you want to interact. Google Plus has a feature of grouping your circle on the basis of your priorities as friends, following, acquaintances, family, colleagues, customers etc. You can share your update with any particular circle or with particular people. Like some updates can be for your business purpose that you would like to share with your customers while others you would like to share with public.
2. Google Plus Page: Google Plus also gives you a feature of creating profile and business page where you can create separate profile and business page like Facebook. Business pages are good way of letting people know about your website, blog and business. You should immediately set up one. You can also add these Google plus Business pages into your Google Plus circles. Contact Sales Success Consulting, a leading Web Design Boston Agency for professional SMO services.
3. Ask Friends to add you Circle: As Google plus is still at starting stage, many people are still unaware of this. In order to make circles you can invite your friends to join you and add you in their Google+ circle. You can also ask your friends who are using other social media networks to add you to their G+ circles. You can also invite your Gmail contacts to join you on Google plus.
4. Share Interesting Stories on Google Plus: Make your Google plus account more interactive and share interesting stories on that. It allows you to share links, videos, images and other content. So you have option to share anything which you find interesting.
You can share your stories with people of your choice and can also mention them by using @ as you do on Facebook to tag people.
5. Locate More People: You can find out more and more people on your Google plus account. You just need to login in your account, clink on view all link option and then click on find people. This will show you options of people either who have same interest like you or who are friends of your friends. You may not even know them personally. So it's your choice who you want to add from the suggested list. You can also import contacts from your Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail accounts by uploading your address book.
6. Send Your Updates through Email: There are chances that some of your friends are not logged into Google plus accounts or not using it and they may miss your latest updates and posts on Google plus. To cope up with this situation you have an option to send updates to your friends through email, a special feature offered by Google+. Google Plus is the only social media network providing you this facility of sharing your updates via Email.
7. Opt for Google Plus Mobile Version: Google plus has its own application using which users can use their mobile to get engaged with their community members and post new status updates as you do for other social media websites.
8. Follow Back Your Followers: You will get a notification from Google plus whenever someone adds you. You should also follow them back to give them a favor.
9. Add Google Plus Buttons to
Your Website: Don't forget to add Google Plus button on your site and blog at important positions. This will give you double benefits. First it will motivate your website readers to click on the plus button and second it will also help in enhancing Google Plus followers.
10. Comment on other's Updates: Make the conversation more interesting by commenting on the latest updates on Google plus. In this way you can also contact lots of new bloggers and targeted audience from your niche.
11. Interesting Stories from Other Users: Apart from commenting on other's updates, you can also click on plus one button to like stories and updates. Slowly and gradually it will benefit you by the returned favor of the people in the form of clicks on plus one button on your stories and the invitation to join their circles.
12. Make Your Google Plus Content Public: Be found by more people and that you can do by making your profile visible to public as done on LinkedIn account. Share your stories and content with public but it should be related to business only. Avoid sharing your personal stuff there.
13. Upload a High Resolution Pictures: If you have collection of nice pictures you can share it on you Google Plus profile. Always upload high resolution pictures to improve the look of your photos.
They should not wait for the declaration of winner and start building their presence as Google Plus circles, friends and followers. Here we have brought a complete list for you with the help of which you can easily get increased followers on Google Plus.
Ways to increase followers on Google Plus
1. Build Google Plus Circle: First thing you need to do is to create a Google Plus Circle. It includes the people with whom you want to interact. Google Plus has a feature of grouping your circle on the basis of your priorities as friends, following, acquaintances, family, colleagues, customers etc. You can share your update with any particular circle or with particular people. Like some updates can be for your business purpose that you would like to share with your customers while others you would like to share with public.
2. Google Plus Page: Google Plus also gives you a feature of creating profile and business page where you can create separate profile and business page like Facebook. Business pages are good way of letting people know about your website, blog and business. You should immediately set up one. You can also add these Google plus Business pages into your Google Plus circles. Contact Sales Success Consulting, a leading Web Design Boston Agency for professional SMO services.
3. Ask Friends to add you Circle: As Google plus is still at starting stage, many people are still unaware of this. In order to make circles you can invite your friends to join you and add you in their Google+ circle. You can also ask your friends who are using other social media networks to add you to their G+ circles. You can also invite your Gmail contacts to join you on Google plus.
4. Share Interesting Stories on Google Plus: Make your Google plus account more interactive and share interesting stories on that. It allows you to share links, videos, images and other content. So you have option to share anything which you find interesting.
You can share your stories with people of your choice and can also mention them by using @ as you do on Facebook to tag people.
5. Locate More People: You can find out more and more people on your Google plus account. You just need to login in your account, clink on view all link option and then click on find people. This will show you options of people either who have same interest like you or who are friends of your friends. You may not even know them personally. So it's your choice who you want to add from the suggested list. You can also import contacts from your Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail accounts by uploading your address book.
6. Send Your Updates through Email: There are chances that some of your friends are not logged into Google plus accounts or not using it and they may miss your latest updates and posts on Google plus. To cope up with this situation you have an option to send updates to your friends through email, a special feature offered by Google+. Google Plus is the only social media network providing you this facility of sharing your updates via Email.
7. Opt for Google Plus Mobile Version: Google plus has its own application using which users can use their mobile to get engaged with their community members and post new status updates as you do for other social media websites.
8. Follow Back Your Followers: You will get a notification from Google plus whenever someone adds you. You should also follow them back to give them a favor.
9. Add Google Plus Buttons to
Your Website: Don't forget to add Google Plus button on your site and blog at important positions. This will give you double benefits. First it will motivate your website readers to click on the plus button and second it will also help in enhancing Google Plus followers.
10. Comment on other's Updates: Make the conversation more interesting by commenting on the latest updates on Google plus. In this way you can also contact lots of new bloggers and targeted audience from your niche.
11. Interesting Stories from Other Users: Apart from commenting on other's updates, you can also click on plus one button to like stories and updates. Slowly and gradually it will benefit you by the returned favor of the people in the form of clicks on plus one button on your stories and the invitation to join their circles.
12. Make Your Google Plus Content Public: Be found by more people and that you can do by making your profile visible to public as done on LinkedIn account. Share your stories and content with public but it should be related to business only. Avoid sharing your personal stuff there.
13. Upload a High Resolution Pictures: If you have collection of nice pictures you can share it on you Google Plus profile. Always upload high resolution pictures to improve the look of your photos.
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Making Money With Social Media - Top Tips
Using social media to promote your online business has become a necessity if you are going to succeed in the Web 2.0 marketplace. Social media has become of the tool of choice by many online business owners for getting their brand established and spreading the word about their online business. Because of this, social media marketing has changed the organic search process and search engines are now starting to index the content that you create on social media sites.
With that said it has become necessary to use social media optimization to drive targeted traffic to your website just like you apply search engine optimization techniques to get your website ranked high in the search engine results.
Understanding Social Media Optimization
When you create a social media marketing campaign you should choose a few different social media tools and then develop strategies for each tool you have chosen. For example, if you have chosen to use Twitter, YouTube, and Digg as tools for your social media marketing campaign, you will develop a specific strategy for each one.
Each strategy you develop must be optimized for the search engines since Twitter content, YouTube videos, and social bookmarking is all recognized by the search engines for indexing.
How to Optimize a Social Media Marketing Campaign
Let's the use the above scenario as an example. If you are using Twitter, YouTube, and Digg as your social media marketing tools of choice, when you create a strategy for each one here are some tips on how to use social media optimization for each component of your social media marketing campaign.
Twitter: If you have used the search engines lately you will find that there is a lot of substance behind 140 character messages. The information you offer on Twitter that is related to your business will be indexed with the search engines. When you plan your strategy with Twitter all of the content you write in your tweets should be optimized for the search engines. When you write content it should include some of the keywords that your prospects use in their searches.
This is not to say you should stuff your tweets full of keywords because that is a "no-no" and will hurt your credibility as a professional. Instead, you should integrate the keywords naturally in your tweets and offer high quality information that is useful to your target audience.
YouTube: You have probably noticed that different videos appear in the search engine results when you conduct a search. If you use a site like YouTube to create educational videos related to your online business, you should optimize the videos for the search engines.
To optimize the videos for the search engines you should name your video files with keywords that your target audience uses and include keywords in the links to your video. Also, place keywords strategically in the content on the web page that contains the video and add keywords to the video title tag and description. If the video is on your website, then create a separate sitemap especially for videos so the search engine spider can easily locate them.
Digg: If social bookmarking is one of your strategies for social media marketing then make all of the content you create on the social bookmarking site keyword rich so your prospects can easily find your content. Any links that you place on the site should also contain keywords just like your domain name.
Based on these examples you can see how social media optimization is important for driving highly targeted traffic to your website. Social media marketing is on the rise and with more of your prospects using mobile devices this makes social media optimization even more important for promoting your online business.
With that said it has become necessary to use social media optimization to drive targeted traffic to your website just like you apply search engine optimization techniques to get your website ranked high in the search engine results.
Understanding Social Media Optimization
When you create a social media marketing campaign you should choose a few different social media tools and then develop strategies for each tool you have chosen. For example, if you have chosen to use Twitter, YouTube, and Digg as tools for your social media marketing campaign, you will develop a specific strategy for each one.
Each strategy you develop must be optimized for the search engines since Twitter content, YouTube videos, and social bookmarking is all recognized by the search engines for indexing.
How to Optimize a Social Media Marketing Campaign
Let's the use the above scenario as an example. If you are using Twitter, YouTube, and Digg as your social media marketing tools of choice, when you create a strategy for each one here are some tips on how to use social media optimization for each component of your social media marketing campaign.
Twitter: If you have used the search engines lately you will find that there is a lot of substance behind 140 character messages. The information you offer on Twitter that is related to your business will be indexed with the search engines. When you plan your strategy with Twitter all of the content you write in your tweets should be optimized for the search engines. When you write content it should include some of the keywords that your prospects use in their searches.
This is not to say you should stuff your tweets full of keywords because that is a "no-no" and will hurt your credibility as a professional. Instead, you should integrate the keywords naturally in your tweets and offer high quality information that is useful to your target audience.
YouTube: You have probably noticed that different videos appear in the search engine results when you conduct a search. If you use a site like YouTube to create educational videos related to your online business, you should optimize the videos for the search engines.
To optimize the videos for the search engines you should name your video files with keywords that your target audience uses and include keywords in the links to your video. Also, place keywords strategically in the content on the web page that contains the video and add keywords to the video title tag and description. If the video is on your website, then create a separate sitemap especially for videos so the search engine spider can easily locate them.
Digg: If social bookmarking is one of your strategies for social media marketing then make all of the content you create on the social bookmarking site keyword rich so your prospects can easily find your content. Any links that you place on the site should also contain keywords just like your domain name.
Based on these examples you can see how social media optimization is important for driving highly targeted traffic to your website. Social media marketing is on the rise and with more of your prospects using mobile devices this makes social media optimization even more important for promoting your online business.
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