Archive for category Search Engine Optimisation
Making the social media opportunities work for you
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E Mail Marketing, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions on August 9th, 2010
One of your main online marketing strategies should be through Social Media outlets.
Why?
Because it’s 2010 and that’s just how it’s done. When using Social Media sites your main focus should be on sending direct targeted traffic to your site, building an arsenal of quality back links, generating online exposure by strengthening your websites online presence, attracting potential clients/users, shining a light on whatever it is you’re providing and building trust.
The four main pillars of social media that you should focus on are:
- Blogs
- Social Networking Sites
- Social Bookmarking Sites
- Forums
Social Media: Blogs
First if you don’t already have one, you’ll need to set up your websites blog that you will also need to optimize for the search engines: You’ll need it to connect to an array of services that will help get the word out about new content on the blog and site via the blogs RSS feed. You can then submit the RSS feed to a number of popular RSS aggregators that relay snippets of recent blog posts made and a link.
You’ll also use the site’s blog to generate exposure for the website through social media news sites such as Technorati and others like it. With a blog, people are more likely to link back to articles posted which in turn would help the site’s overall authority in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) and Page Rank.
Social Network Sites
Networking is the key to any online marketing strategy, as it brings us that much closer to our targeted audience, and one-to-one with potential clients. Through Social Networking sites you should generate a following, a reader base, and interact with them in a way that will help shine the spot light on the company or product/service you’re offering.
A few of these sites include:
- Tumblr
- Myspace
- PartnerUp
- Qapacity
- Ryze
- Talkbiznow
Search engine spiders troll these sites looking for links to something new and relevant so you should always utilize all the profile pages on these sites. You can easily do this by placing you site’s link and a bio where appropriate. Remember, keep your bios keyword rich and targeted but not spammy, that’s the key. With twitter for example, the Bio in your profile ends up being your profile pages description so keep things like that in mind.
Social Bookmarking Sites
These are an entirely different breed of social media sites and often confused with social networks. With social bookmarking sites, you end up generating exposure for the individual blog posts and articles. This is done by creating accounts on the top social bookmarking sites and submitting your article links as interesting to read content and spreading the word that way. Among those sites are a few popular bookmark giants such as:
- Delicious
- StumbleUpon
- Digg
Remember, the key to making any Social Media campaign work is interaction and one-on-one marketing rather than mass marketing and spamming people.
Forums
Further exposure can be achieved by registering on some of the web’s most popular forums, posting a few relevant threads, posts and general topics then adding links to your site/blog in both the forum signature and profile. DON’T join a community to spam them or talk incessantly about your website or business because like any community, listening, commenting, and making a genuine contribution here and there would yield better results and land you more potential clients, especially when people search for your business and find knowledgeable individuals representing your company helping others in the same industry online. It’s all about becoming an industry professional online!
In addition to forum marketing, you can also tap into e-mail based discussion lists and groups.
If you need any advice on how to maximise these different options for the benefit of your business, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on 01694 724 899.
Google now lets you search images
Posted by Paul McSweeney in Search Engine Optimisation, Thoughts & Opinions on July 27th, 2010
Google has debuted their new visual search for Google Images (images.google.com). It looks a lot like the image search function in Microsoft’s Bing. Rather than a rip-off, though, Google’s search goes a step further than Bing and includes a lot of useful information that goes along with each image.
From the index of over 10 billion images in Google’s databases, Google has cross-referenced images as often as possible in order to more thoroughly identify what’s in the picture. For instance, if you post a photo of The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, but do not label it (even with a descriptive file name), Google will likely figure out what it is by comparing it to other photos of the hotel that have been labeled. This is also true of many other types of images, even down to sub-species of animals.
When photos are displayed on the Google search, they pop up as a box over the top of the original page they’re on and this box has other information about the picture. It tells you the size, weight (file size), any image information embedded (titles, photographer, usage rights, etc.) and gives you its best-guess if there is no labeling. You can also use that image as the basis for a new search to find more like it.
You can even specify a color you prefer when searching for an image in the Advanced Search area. So if you’re looking for Volkswagencars , but only want to look at red ones, you can include that and Google will do its best to only return red VWs. Now that is pretty neat!
All in all, there are a lot of cool new things in Google’s new Image Search. It’s now become on-par with Bing and then one-upped the competition.
10 tips on how to keep focused on social media marketing
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E Mail Marketing, Facebook, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Commerce, Social Media, Social Networking on June 28th, 2010
Some of our clients tell us how frustrated they can get with all this social media stuff. Despite the hours they spend on it, they just don’t seem to engage in as many conversations as they had envisaged at the outset. And they start to question whether it is really all worth it.
The flipside is that Social media marketing can be so compelling and addictive that if you are not careful an hour is gone and you haven’t done a thing. Friends and colleagues often make the observation that there is so much valuable information and tempting headlines that compel us to read and view that like the temptations of the mythoglical Greek Ulysses ‘Sirens’ who lured away away ancient mariners we too can be turned from away from our destination.
So how do we keep on track so that the ‘Sirens’ of Ulysses don’t distract us to destruction and ensure we meet our goals?
1. Check your goals
Why did you set up your social media marketing channels in the first place? Is what you are currently doing on social media moving you towards those goals. Some goals may be quite specific such as to to increase inquiries by 20%. It may be a more general goal such as to connect, engage and communicate or create more brand awareness. It may be to write one blog post a day.
2. Get Focused
You have now checked back to your original goals and now you need to refine and continue to determine what are the most important and prioritize them. For me one major goal is to write our blog post on a daily basis.
3. Set a Schedule & A Routine
Providing yourself with a schedule and a deadline can ensure.. mostly… that the activity is done and then you can move on to the next task.
4. Planning , Creating and Developing Content
To ensure that we have information to place on the social media channels that we are using we need to be constantly brainstorming and keeping an eye out for content to post that provides value to your clients and answers their questions and helps solve their problems.
5. Optimizing your Channels
So you now have the content on your social media platforms….are they set up to ensure that people will find them online and when they get there they will find it easy to view and read. A blog may need some search engine optimisation tweaking and with the changes to Google’s search with the recently announced ‘Google Caffeine’ having more recent content on your web presence is more important than ever. Do you have your LinkedIn profile public and do you have your website, blog and facebook pages entered in the page?
6. Promoting Your Brand on Social Media
A lot of people think that once they have published their blog or posted that the online world is just going to turn up… they won’t .. so you need to tell the world. Tweet it (a few times). Place your content on as many channels as time, money and resources allow. Take your eNewsletter and embed social media buttons at the top and the bottom of the email and also place buttons and links to your blog.. email can be integrated into your whole social media activities.
7. Measuring and Monitoring
Set up measuring and monitoring tools and use them as these can provide the feedback on what is working and what isn’t,
8. Analyze and Adjust your Activities
You now have the numbers on your different activities…. use this tweak and fine tune your activities to ensure that they are producing the best result for the least effort.
9. Communicate and Engage with your Social Media Tribe
Ok .. so you have had your head down and tail up, pumping out great content and doing fantastic things but you haven’t had time to listen and engage. You need to ensure that you are not just doing but also connecting otherwise one day you will look up and the tribe has dissappeared
10. Help Someone in your Social Media Community
Take time to promote and help someone in your online community achieve their goals and you will be find that reciprocation is often forthcoming and your efforts will be paid back in spades.
How do you keep focused?
Some tips on social media best practice for business.
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E Mail Marketing, E-Commerce, Facebook, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Commerce, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions on June 24th, 2010
Social networks and blogs are changing how consumers find places and services, how and where they share their experiences, and eventually, where they will spend their time and money.
Without an understanding of, and participation in, social networks, you can miss shaping and contributing to the decision-making process of those who define the success of your business.
While social media cheat-sheets and short cuts are available almost everywhere you look, the truth is that we have some work ahead of us. To help, I’ve assembled a list of five best practices to help you build, cultivate, and measure success in the new web right now.
1. Dedicate the time
Because time is a big concern, think about social media as an opportunity cost. Will your investment in identifying and connecting with prospects, customers, and influencers outperform your other activities? The answer is yes for most businesses, so carve out time for strategic experimentation. In short, you get out of it, what you invest.
2. Conquer your fears
Many business owners believe that social media gives people a chance to criticize their business. That’s true, but avoiding social media doesn’t mean that their opinions will never see the light of day.
Your brand is at the mercy of those who take to social media to share their experiences, so you might as well take an active role to contributes to the stature and perception of your brand. You might even learn how to improve your product and service in the process.
3. Listen and research to learn and contribute
Social networking is far more effective when you realize that creating profiles and updating social networks aren’t arbitrary. There’s an art and science to all of this, and the process begins with listening and research.
Step one: create a list of keywords that represent your market and then use the search box in each social network to see what people are saying about you. As you examine the results, you’ll identify the people who are leading conversations and the dialogue that invites and inspires participation. If local business is paramount to success, use services such as Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn. Also monitor location-based networks such as Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt.
4. Establish an attractive and expansive presence
Your presence online is far more valuable than you may realize. While you may think that you should focus on your website, your social-media presence also represents you and what you offer. The ability to showcase your products and services to attract customers and spark conversation is arguably greater on social networking sites than your own website. In any case, connecting the dots between social networks, websites, and the real world is now as important as the service and products that you offer.
5. Use engagement as the new customer service and marketing
It’s not what you say about you, it’s what they say about you that counts. Customer service and engagement overall is a new and genuine form of unmarketing. Customers, prospects, and influencers are already engaging with others to contribute, learn, and discover.
They are forming and sharing opinions and making decisions based on the information they find online—with or without you. You should use engagement as a fast, free, and powerful way to reach and serve customers.
This is your time to engage! Doing so will earn you permanent residence in the hearts and minds of the people who make up your markets. This will expand market opportunities, build brand awareness, stimulate demand, and engender loyalty and advocacy.
Organic SEO- it’s not free but well worth the time ..
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E Mail Marketing, Facebook, Online Marketing, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Optimisation, Thoughts & Opinions, World News on May 10th, 2010
Organic SEO is not a cheap option when it is done properly. However, the increase in traffic and leads is unbelievable. The ideal business scenario would be to rely purely on word of mouth and leads generated through Google organically. To do no other outbound marketing, no adverts on the radio or in the press, yet still have countless enquiries every single day. This can be achieved, with a well-structured campaign..and some patience.
There are many techniques involved with organic SEO . However, without doubt the most important ingredient is quality, relevant back links from third party sites.
Other important elements are a combination of good page titles, relevant text, compliant well structured code and online self promotion. The proliferation of social networks, and increasing popularity of YouTube and Flickr. enables you to attract a wide audience through a selection of different media.
You bring in traffic by using content that works, linking strategies, and adding value via interactivity and a great user experience, not paid search listings.
Thousands of companies will promise the earth and deliver nothing; your spam inbox is probably full of them!!
There are a lot of companies out there who like to lead people to believe that reaching the top of Google is a simple and easy process….it’s a lie. It is a long and drawn out process but one that is full of rewards and benefits once you have achieved it.
Should you wish to enquire about Organic SEO and have a realistic budget to achieve this, then please do not hesitate to contact us by our enquiry form or by giving us a call on 01694 724899
Online Advertising continues to grow
Posted by David Harrison in Online Marketing, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions, Traditional Marketing on September 30th, 2009
It’s funny how coincidences occur on occasion. Yesterday I attended a useful course on the planning of digital marketing campaigns. As a company, we tend to focus on search and emails as the primary means of engaging with customers. We will suggest enhancing these more traditional routes through the use of social media when appropriate.
We tend not to suggest using online advertsising so much, as much as anything due to a lack of knowledge. I think we need to look at this again. The course, part of my MSc (nose to the grindstone now!), was largely about the use of various display advertising formats, CPMs, CPAs, CPCs and the like. It has to be said that for certain offerings, this channel should be used – in conjunction we would suggest with the more standard routes such as search and email marketing. That sentence in itself is contentious, as for some people their view of the world would be the opposite with displays being the primary focus. I will leave it up to you to decide on your own priorities.
The key point however is that online advertsing is continuing to grow http://bit.ly/2oqCxP. This is all good news for those suppliers involved in the digital arena. It is also good news for clients, as online promotion has one huge benefit over traditional media – MEASURABILITY! Whilst you will never know how many people see your ad in the paper you will certainly know the reach of your online promotions. If nothing else, we would recommend you review the allocations of your marketing budgets and check those pounds are working their hardest for you.
Twitter vs Facebook … who will win? ….
Posted by David Harrison in Facebook, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions, Useful Stuff on August 17th, 2009
One of the best sources for ongoing discussions and useful opinions relating to the whole social media space is Mashable in our humble opinion.
This is a really good article and we would recommend you give it the once over … http://bit.ly/100gn
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